1984

the significance of the contrast between the room over the junk shop and the regime

describe how winston's world was before he lived the the room and after he lived in the room

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Winston acknowledges himself from the beginning as against the party and the Big Brother before he rents the room, but the maturity of his rebellious thoughts and actions can only be seen properly under development while he is experiencing his freedom inside the room, whether alone or in company with Julia. Whenever they meet Winston felt like he's safe and secure. It was like a love nest for them. Julia panting her face and wearing what she feels like shows her rebellion. It is almost like a whole new world for him where he and Julia could have their own safe time and continue making love. It’s also a place of freedom, a rare and precious commodity at the best of times, but especially so in a society in which everyone is constantly under the watchful gaze of the party.

  • were living like "real" people. The shophouse symbolizes the world before the regime. The time being different from the original time in London represents the world in the past and the present. The world outside the shophouse, the world in London was horrible where they couldn't be themselves even for a minute. They lived like robots where all had to do was follow whatever the regime said. But unlike Julia, she did not care if she gets vaporized or killed by the regime. She lives a double life where at one side she acts as an honest party member while on the other side she is living her life however she wants to live. But Winston is a very fatalistic person. He knows that he is going to get killed by committing such a crime but he is not scared because his love is larger than his fear.

The world in London and the world in the shophouse shows the contrast between two different worlds. The world before the regime which was free and peaceful, and the world of London shows the actual world they are living in now which is very totalitarian, cruel and controlling world. Winston takes the room because it reminds him of the past of a time when a person could be alone. This makes sense because what he is trying to do by rebelling is to go back to a time when people could think of themselves and be whom they want to be.

Winston also thinks about how it would feel like to live in that paperweight. Also, he realized he is inside the paperweight where the surface of the glass is the arch of the sky, the coral was Julia's life and his own. He felt like he was living inside a bubble where he was safe from the party and horrors outside the room. Both Winston and Julia felt like home when they were together in the room, ignoring the fact that it was dusty and dirty all they wanted was to be with each other and make love. The contrast is also showed in the sugar, tea, milk, and coffee brought by Julia which reminded him of his past life, his life before the regime. Inside the room, he felt like he was living in his past life. The saccharine sugar, the fake loaf of bread and the victory coffee reminds him of his life in the regime. The memory and the smell of the original products of coffee and tea had remained with him, which makes him feel much more comfortable and like home when he is in the room. It represents for Winston the possibility of life similar to how, he thinks, it was in the past when there was no INGSOC and no Big Bro