Before The Law And Fahrenheit 451

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Despite constantly striving to find objective, complete truth, our understanding of the world is limited by language and authority. In the texts Before the Law by Franz Kafka and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the boundaries set on our knowledge by authority are explored. 1984 by George Orwell and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula Le Guin illustrate the restrictions caused by our language. These texts reveal the impossibility of obtaining objective truth and the incomplete nature of human perception. What we understand is limited by what authority wants us to see. Often authority stops us in our search for knowledge because ignorant populations are easier to control. Before the Law portrays how authority always hides the truth …show more content…

Before his death, the man sees “an illumination which breaks inextinguishably out of the gateway to the Law.” The imagery of light symbolises the man’s hope as well as truth and understanding, while the darkness represents ignorance and incomprehension. This reflects the constant striving towards our goals in everyone’s lives. However, the gatekeeper stops the man from entering, symbolising authority, stopping us from reaching our goal or learning about its true nature. When he says, “I’m now going to shut it,” the gatekeeper’s authority is reestablished through the harsh, assertive tone, showing that he has full control over who enters and can change the man’s fate effortlessly. The man’s understanding of what is inside the gate is limited to his imagination and what the gatekeeper tells him. As the authoritative figure, the gatekeeper does not directly stop the man from trying to enter the gate but rather influences him to stay and wait for his whole life in ignorance. This symbolises how authorities do not …show more content…

When we lose language and ways of expressing ourselves, we also lose our complex thoughts. In 1984, Newspeak was the new language that focuses on eliminating words rather than creating them. Syme, the linguist, exclaims how “[the government] shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” Through this elimination of words and their associated meanings and feelings, the government can narrow the citizens’ range of thought. This is a representation of Linguistic Determinism, a sub-theory of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which implies that how we think and what we think is not only influenced, but determined, by the language we speak. The Party’s slogan is “War is peace”. Freedom is a form of slavery. Ignorance is strength,” uses contradictions to blur the meanings of these abstract words, confuses the citizens to make them question their perception, and therefore trusts the Party for a true understanding of reality. This enables the Party to use language as a tool to establish control and change what citizens believe to be correct, effectively eliminating their ability to think for themselves. Through the use of Newspeak and slogans, Orwell portrays the dangers of using language as a tool for control and the unseen, inevitable restrictions every human being has in their lives. Totalitarian governments use this power of language to control and indoctrinate their citizens,

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