Discuss Winston Smith's obsession with the past, focusing particularly on his quest for individual self-knowledge.

Discuss Winston Smith's obsession with the past, focusing particularly on his quest for individual self-knowledge. Orwell explores and highlights a number of Winston Smith's obsession with the past. Orwell particularly focuses on Winston's quest for individual self-knowledge, such as the paperweight or his craze with accumulating objects from the 'Golden country'. The paperweight fascinates Winston with its elegance. 'There was a peculiar softness, as of rain-water, in both the colour and the texture of the …

…only receives a little bit of information as the old man's has been taught to forget. Winston Smith is clearly obsessed with the past, and is enthusiastic on learning about it. Winston is obsessed with the past because he is eager to know about life in the past and the quality of things there were in the past. Winston is also determined to find out about how Big Brother formed, this could be his downfall.