Motifs: A reappearing motif in the novel is the cigarette. George Orwell always describes Winston's interactions with cigarettes whenever he stops to smoke. Most of the time the cigarettes are of low quality, and the poor tobacco usually falls out of the cigarette if Winston is careless enough to tip it over. The purpose of this motif is to mirror the situation of the society. The poor quality of the cigarette relates to the present condition of the society. Whenever Winston manages to poor out the tobacco, or makes a negative remark about its quality, it coincides with something that is depreciating within the society around him. At the start of the book, Orwell portrays the setting as deteriorating and of a fake and low quality. At the end of this description, Winston "took a cigarette from the crumpled packet marked VICTORY CIGARETTES and incautiously held it upright, whereupon the tobacco fell out onto the floor" (Orwell 5). This shows how the cigarette mirrors the quality of the society around it. The cigarette is portrayed more positive than it really was, just like how the Party portrays life in society as better than what reality is like in the society.
Setting: The extent to which the setting is described directly relates to how safe and free Winston is feeling. In the Totalitarian society in which Winston lives, he is almost always under watch. Therefore, he puts lots of effort into not doing anything out of the ordinary, and only focusing on the one thing which he is supposed to be doing. When Winston is out of view of the telescreen, however, he feels free enough to observe and appreciate the beauty he finds in his surroundings, a dangerous act performed under surveillance. Winston was on one of his usual walks, when he decides to duck in a shop in the "prole" part of the city. He feels free in this shop because there is no surveillance, so he displays his freedom by taking in his surroundings. "Winston noticed that the furniture was still arranged as though the room were meant to be lived in. There was a strip of carpet on the floor, a picture or two on the walls, and a deep, slatternly armchair drawn up to the fireplace. An old-fashioned glass clock with a twelve-hour face was ticking away on the mantelpiece. Under the window, and occupying nearly a quarter of the room, was an enormous bed with the mattress still on it" (Orwell 99). The fact that the setting is always described through Winston's eyes due to Orwell's use of first person narration results in a much more detailed description of the setting when Winston feels free. His happiness at being able to act as he wants in these situations tends to result in the setting being described by him as being more positive, while the setting when he is under surveillance tends to be negative and drab. In the quote, his feeling of freedom leads to a very detailed description of the setting by Winston, and the setting takes on a warm, homely feeling because Winston feels happy that he is momentarily free.
Language: Orwell, through first person narration and dialogue, shows when Winston fears he is being watched. When Winston fears he is under surveillance of a telescreen or Party member, he keeps his talking to a minimum, and we are aware of his thoughts due to first person narration. However, when Winston feels free of being watched, he says his thoughts out loud. In the first third of the novel, Winston enters a pub full of proles in search of an escape from the constant watch of the telescreens and in search of some political information. He finds an old man and asks him "'Do you feel that you have more freedom now than you had in those days? Are you treated more like a human being?'" (Orwell 93). If Winston had been in a setting where he felt he was under surveillance, he would have thought of those same questions, but he would have kept them inside his head. Therefore, the reader can tell whether Winston feels fearful of being watched or not by noticing whether he portrays his opinions by thought or by dialogue.
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