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Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Metaphors
Explanation and Analysis—Breaking Down:
The third book acquaints the reader with the Party's comprehensive and harrowing industry of torture. Dozens of people are employed to participate in the beatings, interrogations, and medical examinations of prisoners like Winston. Similes and metaphors in the second chapter of the third book show that, as he is progressively broken down, Winston feels less and like a human—and more and more like an animal, an inanimate object, or a detached body part.
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Metaphors
Explanation and Analysis—Animal Analogies:
Orwell makes frequent use of animal analogies to describe characters in 1984. While the novel is lacking in actual animals, it is full of people with animalistic appearances and tendencies, which Orwell underlines through metaphors and similes.
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Book 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Past:
Over the course of the first book, the past is described using metaphors and similes that revolve around mist, erasure, and unsolvable equations. Through this, Orwell shows that the Party's rigorous control of reality and narratives about reality has emptied history of the meaning it once had. In Winston's view, the Party's most dangerous power is its ability to control people's own memories of the past: "If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death."
In the third chapter of the first book, Winston ponders the meaninglessness of a past that is constantly subject to top-down alterations:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually destroyed. For how could you establish even the most obvious fact when there existed no record outside your own memory? [...] Everything melted into mist.
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Book 1, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—The Past:
Over the course of the first book, the past is described using metaphors and similes that revolve around mist, erasure, and unsolvable equations. Through this, Orwell shows that the Party's rigorous control of reality and narratives about reality has emptied history of the meaning it once had. In Winston's view, the Party's most dangerous power is its ability to control people's own memories of the past: "If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death."
In the third chapter of the first book, Winston ponders the meaninglessness of a past that is constantly subject to top-down alterations:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually destroyed. For how could you establish even the most obvious fact when there existed no record outside your own memory? [...] Everything melted into mist.
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Book 1, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—The Past:
Over the course of the first book, the past is described using metaphors and similes that revolve around mist, erasure, and unsolvable equations. Through this, Orwell shows that the Party's rigorous control of reality and narratives about reality has emptied history of the meaning it once had. In Winston's view, the Party's most dangerous power is its ability to control people's own memories of the past: "If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death."
In the third chapter of the first book, Winston ponders the meaninglessness of a past that is constantly subject to top-down alterations:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually destroyed. For how could you establish even the most obvious fact when there existed no record outside your own memory? [...] Everything melted into mist.
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Book 2, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—The Room:
As the relationship between Julia and Winston develops, the room over Mr. Charrington's shop acquires many layers of meaning. In the fourth and fifth chapters of the second book, Orwell uses metaphors to describe the room, capturing Winston's awe over having a space where he is free to think, feel, and rest in private.
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Book 2, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—The Room:
As the relationship between Julia and Winston develops, the room over Mr. Charrington's shop acquires many layers of meaning. In the fourth and fifth chapters of the second book, Orwell uses metaphors to describe the room, capturing Winston's awe over having a space where he is free to think, feel, and rest in private.
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