History has been, and always will be, a matter of perspective. Wars, for example, will be viewed and taught differently by each country involved. Some things will be erased and forgotten, while somewhere else they will be remembered. In George Orwell's 1984, history is often falsified for the government's benefit. However, even though the past may not be accurate in the minds of the citizens of utopia, the true past sometimes lingers in other forms. In this novel, the past is preserved in objects rather than words, as in a painting and a field. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Knowingly, the protagonist, Winston, alters newspapers and other various documents to rewrite the past in a way that protects the government and allows them to persist and continue running in their totalitarian ways. However, as he explores his world, he unknowingly comes across relics of the past that are immutable and keep alive a time before the world he knows. One thing Winston discovers is an old photo of a church called St. Clement's Dane, which "looked vaguely familiar [to him]" (97). Even the slightest recognition of an old building is vital because it is what pushes Winston's mind to reflect on every little artifact he discovers. This in particular is the preservation not only, physically, of a building that once existed, but also of an ancient culture. This bygone culture included a more sophisticated literature and language, evident simply in a simple nursery rhyme the shop owner tells that accompanies St. Clement's Dane, “'Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement!'” (98 ). Although the rhyme seems uncomplex, its simple existence implies a world that was once graced by silly rhymes, important or otherwise. This implication also involves creativity, and with creativity comes freedom, both of which have been, or attempt to be, abolished by Oceania. Although it is a more obvious and tangible relic of the past, it is a clear reminder of the world before the Revolution with the resulting poetry, enough to create “…the illusion of actually hearing the bells, the bells of a lost world” . London that still existed somewhere, disguised and forgotten” (99). Not only creativity is an element that the church photo preserves, but also the religious aspect of such bells. The photo keeps alive a time when religion was more a part of the daily routine. In Winston's time, religion seemed scarce and almost extinct, as is evident in a church that he recalls as “...a museum used for propaganda displays of various kinds” (99). As such, the photo also preserves a lost element of life by capturing the image of a church, a symbol of a religion that hardly existed in Winston's time. The photo keeps the past alive with a much more complex language where it existed and where there was more freedom. A "lost London" lives again in the image of the church, and reminds Winston that what he knows has not always existed. Although a “lost London” lives within an image, a lost bond survives in the first place Winston and Julia meet. . Julia takes Winston to a natural clearing in the woods, which Winston calls “'...the Golden Country...a landscape [he has] sometimes seen in dreams'” (123). The field preserves nature and natural drives and instincts, such as sexual drives, in a world where such connections and impulses are actively defended. Here Julia and Winston give in to these urges for the first time and allow themselves to temporarily live in another time. The field not only keeps alive a past in which there is a connection with the.
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