“...but the room had awakened in him a sort of nostalgia, a sort of ancestral memory. It seemed to him that he knew exactly what it felt like to sit in a room like this, an armchair beside an open fire with your feet in the fender and kettle on the hob, utterly alone, utterly secure, with nobody watching you, no voice pursuing you, no sounds except the singing of the kettle and the friendly ticking of the clock.” (82)
Orwell chose a very interesting hideout for Winston and Julia. He had them rent a small, old-fashioned, shabby room positioned over an old antique shop. By placing Winston in this room, which is a fairly familiar and comfortable setting for the reader, Orwell emphasizes how The Party has separated Winston from real life. He appreciates this old bug-ridden bed and the smelly furniture so much because of the way The Party makes him live. The proles are closer to real life than the ministry people. The fact that Winston appreciates all of these old comforts also shows how separate he is from the Party, because true believers would never find themselves in a place like this. This is similar to the part in Handmaids Tale when Offred plays scrabble for the first time. She appreciates the whole experience much more than one normally would.
"Fender - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary."Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fender>.
"Hob - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hob>.
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Print.
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