Winston spends a lot of time ruminating on metaphysical questions, but no one else seems to be doing this at all. What is it about Winston that makes him different from his peers, that drives him to ask these philosophical questions?

For whatever reason, Winston does not want to be completely brainwashed by Big Brother and the philosophy which makes the people of Oceania simply automatons.  Winston begins to be a thinking man and begins to see what is wrong with the Big Brother propaganda; no one else is worrying about it.

Big brothers spread of propaganda, diminish of words, and being able to keep the population satisfied with the distribution of pornographic photos keeps people from questioning big brother. Although, Winston’s fascination with the past (the glass paper weight, the diary) and whether life was better before big brother, influences his metaphysical questions.