One of the most powerful symbols in the novel is the paperweight that

Winston finds in the antique shop, an object that represents for the reader and

Winston the idea that some elements of the past that seem to be beyond the reach of

the Party. The existence of the antique shop in the Prole district is in itself an

acknowledgement that the Party cannot hope to control every little thing and every

memory that an object might conjure up for an individual. Winston describes the

paperweight, one of the treasures he finds at the antique shop: “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). This paperweight stands for the past that he

constantly tries to preserve by taking stock of his own and others’ memories of life

before The Party. “At the heart of it”, implies that in the core of his being, Winston

knows that the past as he remembers it did exist, and that the Party can do nothing

to change that, that ultimately, the human mind is its own boss and its own

protector. The idea that a piece of coral, something living, like a life is lived, is

embedded under a layer of thick glass suggests that, despite all the Party says, the

past is protected to some extent by the strength of the human mind. Certainly the

Party does its best to control the past through the rectifying of news articles and

other Party-designed distractions, but it must work hard to completely eradicate

each individual’s memory of the past. However, Winston seems to be one of the only

Party members holding on to his version of the past. It is not until the Thought

Police invade his “nest” over the antique shop and imprisons him in the Ministry of

Love where he eventually loses his mind that the reader begins to understand that

Winston’s concept of the protected past is incorrect. When a member of the

Thought Police discovers the paperweight and smashes it to the floor, Winston

notices, “The fragment of coral, a tiny crinkle of pink like a sugar rosebud from a

cake, rolled across the mat”(223). The coral is no longer magnified and therefore

easily examined. Orwell illustrates the ultimate power of The Party in the act of the

smashing of the paperweight that reduces the once strong presence of the coral that

can be interpreted to represent the past to a delicate “crinkle of pink like a sugar

rosebud from a cake.” The Party successfully transforms Winston’s concept of the

past to one of fragility and irrelevance. In the use of the symbol, Orwell exposes the

frailty of humanity in the face of entities like The Party. Ultimately, the reader falls

prey to the same idea that victimizes Winston: the antique shop and its relics are

not out of reach of The Party but rather a part of The Party’s plan to capture

Winston.