Brilliant authors use symbolism in their works so that readers have a better understanding of the concepts they are trying to portray. In George Orwell's novel 1984, Orwell uses symbols to provide an easier way of understanding his genius ideas of what occurs in Oceania, the setting of the novel. The Ministry building show us the strength of the party and also the social structure of Oceania. Winston and Julia's forbidden escape from the party is symbolized by the paperweight. Although George Orwell uses multiple symbols in his novel 1984 the three that develop plot and theme and therefore are most important are the Ministry buildings, the glass paperweight, and O"Brien's boot stomping on a human face.
The structure of the Ministry buildings symbolize the strength of the hierchy government in Oceania as well as the levels of social status in the novel. The four Ministry buildings have, "enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, souring up, terrace after terrace, three hundred meters into the air." (Orwell 5) The shear size of the Ministry buildings compared to the condition of the living quarters of Winston which are, "notting nineteenth-century houses, their sides shored up with bqulks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron- (Orwell 5) prove the vast strength of the Party's Ministry buildings. Because the Ministry buildings are shaped like pyramids, they symbolize the, "three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle and the Low." (Orwell 192) or the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Prolitarians. The shape of the pyramid symbolizes the social classes because the poles 85 percent of the population of Oceania, are on the bottom of the pyramid and the less numerous Inner and Outer Party members are up top. The Ministry buildings give us a better understanding of the strength of the hierchy government in Oceania, as well as the levels of society.
