"Someone had picked up the glass paperweight from the table and smashed it to pieces on the hearthstone. The fragment of coral, a tiny crinkle of pink like a sugar rosebud from a cake, rolled across the mat. How small, thought Winston, how small it always was!" (223).
The paperweight was introduced as the symbol of Winston's hope almost the moment Winston had begun to develop that hope. Orwell continues to throw in brief mentions of the paperweight being present in the scene until the moment when it seems hope will grow into reality. But just as it seems the goal is about to be realized, the paperweight, along with Winston's dream, is smashed. Orwell then uses the metaphor of the coral being Winston's hope to reveal just how small the hope had been; yet in a desperate brain, such as Winston's, a little can appear to be a lot. Although the hope most likely should have appeared small to the audience, Orwell is telling the story through Winston's point of view, therefore blowing the hope out of proportion.
Orwell then uses the metaphor of the coral being Winston's hope to reveal just how small the hope had been, yet in a desperate brain, such as Winston's, a little can appear to be a lot. -- break in two -- it's a lot of turns in the thinking for a reader to keep up with
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ReplyDelete"The paperweight was introduced as the symbol of Winston's hope almost the moment Winston had begun to develop that hope. Orwell continues to throw in brief mentions of the paperweight being present in the scene until the moment when it seems hope will grow into reality. But just as it seems the goal is about to be realized, the paperweight, along with Winston's dream, is smashed. Orwell then uses the metaphor of the coral being Winston's hope to reveal just how small the hope had been, yet in a desperate brain, such as Winston's, a little can appear to be a lot. Although the hope most likely should have appeared small to the audience, Orwell is telling the story through Winston's point of view, therefore blowing the hope out of proportion."