An Object from the Past - 1984 II

"It was a heavy lump of glass, curved on one side, flat on the other, making almost a hemisphere. There was a peculiar softness, as of rainwater, in both the color and the texture of the glass. At the heart of it, magnified by the curved surface, there was a strange, pink, convoluted object that recalled a rose or a sea anemone" (95).

Orwell uses Winston's discovery of the thing with the "apparent uselessness" to show how the past begins to dawn on Winston: the past must have been better than the present (an idea as familiar to romantics as the idea that "the grass is always greener.." is to cows). But like the cows assumption that the grass on the other side of the fence is better, the assumption that the past is better than the present is developed from sight alone, from what is seen in the ancient paperweight. Orwell characterizes the paperweight in such a way that it becomes the symbol of Winston's hope for a better future.