In Nineteen Eighty-Four, how do Syme and razor blades help define Winston Smith's character?

Syme and razor blades come togther when in the canteen the
philologist and specialist in Newspeak asks Winston Smith if he has any razor blades to
spare. "Not a one," Winston replies, guiltily. "They don't exist any longer." That both
are juxtaposed in the same narrative area of the novel is no accident, and highly
significant.  Syme and razor blades are keys to the novel's unique understanding of
politics and power. As such they also frame a defining moment in the development of
Winston Smith's character. In his lunchtime encounter with Syme, Winston remarks that
there was always a shortage of some "necessary article" such as buttons or shoelaces in
the party shops. "At present it was razor blades." Here in the humble, and routine, and
very necessary ritual of shaving, the Party exercises total control in the same way as
it does over the communication of ideas. Syme expresses it eloquently: "...the whole
aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought. In the end we will make thoughtcrime
literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it." Syme
describes more than a particularly virulent form of totalitarianism. Here is the
practical working-out of the notion that language structures our perception of the
phenomenal world. The essence of Newspeak is that language is infinitely malleable, and
that the one which dominates it, the Party, rules the individual utterly. In a moment of
illumination, Winston knows that Syme grasps this essential truth. Therefore, Winston
knows for certain that Syme will be vapourized. And if Winston knows the fate of the
philologist who is unorthodox, because he is conscious of the Party's motives, he also
knows his own. "They don't exist any longer."