Imagery

As mentioned previously, as soon as Winston discovers that a better world once existed and can exist again, he focuses his attention on that possibility. He can no longer be satisfied with only wearing overalls and being forbidden to marry the woman he loves—he wants real feelings. He is no longer satisfied with the porridge, cheese, Victory coffee, and saccharine that he is given for meals—he wants real food. George Orwell uses imagery to emphasize how wonderful freedom is, especially compared to life in Oceania and its many restrictions. Julia gives Winston real food, real clothes, and real love. “The smell was already filling the room, a rich hot smell which seemed like an emanation from his early childhood…’It’s coffee, he murmured. Real coffee’” (page 117). Winston seems only to use his senses to describe objects and people in full detail when they are real. The reader is able to distinguish the ordinary from the extraordinary (which is only what is real) through these descriptions.

Real Coffee