Orwell’s “1984” --Prose Analysis 1 of 2

Independent Reading #2

Orwell’s “1984” --Prose Analysis 1 of 2

“Winston did not get up for a few minutes more. The room was darkening. He turned over toward the light and lay gazing into the glass paperweight. The inexhaustibly interesting thing was not the fragment of coral but the interior of the class itself. There was such a depth of it, and yet it was almost as transparent as air. It was as though the surface of the glass had been the arch of the sky, enclosing a tiny world with its atmosphere complete. He had the feeling that he could get inside it, and that in fact he was inside it, along with the mahogany bed and the gateleg table and the clock and the steel engraving and the paperweight itself. The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.” Pg. 122

This is a perfect example of an extended metaphor. Basically, the crystal is his life that he erected with Julia; the life that ironically will ineluctably lead to his doom. The room that he rented from the old man who sold the paperweight to him symbolized his “paradise.” He actually described it as his paradise. Ironically, his paradise, again would lead to his death. Ironic because paradise, by definition is, heaven and in his situation, it is not possible for him to have paradise. Even if he does find perfect happiness, I know he still worries.

The extended metaphor is stated in the text provided above, “The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.”

The paperweight, which he holds near and dear to his heart because it is a piece of history that managed to remain unchanged, remained the truth of the past. The paperweight has represented the past and the room he was in at the moment also came from the past. He was laying on a bed that belonged to the past. He ate food that was only made in the past. The coral, the center of the crystal was the life that Julia and Winston created against the rules of the Party. Frozen in eternity, the coral is kept safe from change. Winston terribly wishes that his “love” with Julia can remain as eternal as the coral within the unchanging crystal paperweight.

Winston also uses this metaphor throughout the work, and establishes it into a more complex extended metaphor.