The Symbolism of The Glass Paperweight and St. Clements Church

Through the use of intense propaganda the Party forces their version of the past, and in turn their vision of truth itself, to manifest within individual minds. While controlling the present the Party are able to make it almost impossible to deny the fact that they might not have controlled the entire past as well. Throughout the novel Winston attempts to see through the haze of lies in his mind to recover his own personal memories, memories of before the Party's reign. This constant interior battle within himself soon comes to be represented in a small, glass paperweight he bought in an antique store in one of his visits to the prole district. The paperweight, clear with a pink coral interior, is one of the last remaining "chunks of history" the Party had "forgotten to alter" (319). Winston sees it as a direct spyglass to the past, a window free of the Party's influence. It is his anchor to the world before the Party, with it he is certain of the lies being spread. However, when his and Julia's room above Mr. Charrington's shop is raided by the Thought Police it is destroyed; a textbook example of foreshadowing.

The raid by the Thought Police also brings about another bout of foreshadowing; the police discover Winston and Julia from hidden the telescreen behind the painting of the St. Clements Church. Periodically, Winston had been remembering a phrase or two from an old song from his childhood, based upon the St. Clements Church. Up until this point in the novel the song, much like the paperweight, had been a symbol of hope for Winston. It also formed a direct link to a better time. However, as the police ultimately use it to destroy him, a dark shadow is cast upon it.

The paperweight shattering and the song being dirtied by the likes of the Thought Police could both be seen as direct symbolic foreshadowing of the suffering Winston and Julia alike were about to undergo. Before shattering their entire belief systems, the Party, unknowingly or not, shatter the only physical ties to the previous world that Winston could remember. Without them, Winston was left with just his fleeting memories, memories that proved able to be broken with about the same effort involved needed for smashing a glass sphere. "Here comes the chopper to chop off your head"...