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Orwell's use of language in 1984
George Orwell on the use of language
George Orwell on the use of language
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Recommended: Orwell's use of language in 1984
Can we believe that the destruction of language and the past can be used as a tool to control the people? Well , In George Orwell's 1984, Oceania is area controlled by Big Brother which is the leader of the party. The Party controls the proles which is around 65-70 percent of the population. The proles are controlled by their language created by the party and is known as Newspeak. The destruction of language is very easily used as a tool to control the people’s thoughts by controlling the language they know. People in this book are being controlled such as the party controlling the words they know, controlling their thoughts and feelings by controlling the language and using force to punish anyone who thinks something that's considered against
Diction: While George Orwell used fairly simple and uncomplicated diction to tell the story many of his words still have a very powerful diction. In the first chapter the protagonist Winston is attack by the smell of “boiled cabbage and old rag mats”. This is the first indication to the nature of the living conditions of our protagonist. However, Orwell also uses his diction to create the atmosphere of Oceania with lines like “the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no colour in anything”. These lines contain powerful words like cold, torn, and harsh and these worlds help paint the picture of what kind of story we are reading.
The novel, 1984, written by George Orwell, gives readers an insight to a possible frightening future where one government has complete and definite control of the people. But “control” might not be the term to describe such a rule. The Party dominates every aspect of life. There is not a single thing that is not under the Party’s rule. Feelings, history, language, statistics, and even human nature are submissive to the Party. They corrupt the mind so much that there is no longer a line that separates truth from a lie. Slogans are repeated through telescreens on a daily basis so the people are gradually forced to believe in illogical statements. Upon first glance, it may seem that a 1984 society is not even imaginable in the world we live in currently. But is it really logical to make such an assumption so quickly? Do we know that what we see on the news and read in our history textbooks is completely accurate? The Internet is one of the most powerful technologies our world has, consisting of an insurmountable amount of information, which is not always what it seems. Ultimately, there are so many things that we do not know, some of which is being held a secret from us. Modern day society shockingly has evidence of a transformation into a menacing 1984 society because of similar government actions and abuse of advanced technology.
One of the most essential ways in which feelings are expressed by humans is through language. Without language people are merely robotic figures that can not express their thoughts because language is in fact thought. When this speech is taken away through complete governmental power, a portion of human nature is also taken away. In 1984, due to totalitarianism, language has begun to transform into a poor representation of humanity and natural human expression. Orwell states, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” In the novel, a new language, Newspeak, has emerged. Newspeak has drastically limited the vocabulary of the English language
1984 was written in 1948 and published in 1949 by Eric Arthur Blair under the pen name ‘George Orwell’. It is set in the year 1984 in Airstrip One, which is a province in the country of Oceania. The world is in a constant state of war between Oceania, and the other two countries, Eurasia and Eastasia. Oceania is controlled by English Socialism, or INGSOC in Oceania’s language, Newspeak. The powerful Inner Party controls the country using omnipresent surveillance, and manipulation. Every part of life is regimented and controlled, but the only crime is ‘thoughtcrime’: independent thinking and individualism. Big Brother is the figurehead of the Inner Party, and throughout the book, it is heavily implied that he may not really exist. The people
When George Orwell’s epic novel 1984 was published in 1949 it opened the public’s imagination to a future world where privacy and freedom had no meaning. The year 1984 has come and gone and we generally believe ourselves to still live in “The Land of the Free;” however, as we now move into the 21st Century changes brought about by recent advances in technology have changed the way we live forever. Although these new developments have seamed to make everyday life more enjoyable, we must be cautious of the dangers that lie behind them for it is very possible that we are in fact living in a world more similar to that of 1984 than we would like to imagine.
I strongly agree with Fromm’s viewpoints and interpretations of Orwell’s 1984 text. He warns that the future federal powers will dehumanize society and leave everyone alienated. Thus, I agree with Fromm to the extent that he acknowledges the fact that humanity can indeed cease to exist as a result of our own self-destruction as well as the effect of our actions. Many of his opinions and warnings expressed by Orwell to an extent appear in contemporary society.
War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. The party slogan of Ingsoc illustrates the sense of contradiction which characterizes the novel 1984. That the book was taken by many as a condemnation of socialism would have troubled Orwell greatly, had he lived to see the aftermath of his work. 1984 was a warning against totalitarianism and state sponsored brutality driven by excess technology. Socialist idealism in 1984 had turned to a total loss of individual freedom in exchange for false security and obedience to a totalitarian government, a dysutopia. 1984 was more than a simple warning to the socialists of Orwell's time. There are many complex philosophical issues buried deep within Orwell's satire and fiction. It was an essay on personal freedom, identity, language and thought, technology, religion, and the social class system. 1984 is more than a work of fiction. It is a prediction and a warning, clothed in the guise of science fiction, not so much about what could happen as it is about the implications of what has already happened. Rather than simply discoursing his views on the social and political issues of his day, Orwell chose to narrate them into a work of fiction which is timeless in interpretation. This is the reason that 1984 remains a relevant work of social and philosophical commentary more than fifty years after its completion.
In the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment provides the most significant liberties during only 45 words:
Total governmental control is what countries have been seeking since the beginning of civilization. With the complete control over governmental affairs a totalitarian government can function to an exemplary degree of efficiency. The people are left out of the decisions and they are not to be worried about worldly affairs because the government makes all the decisions and gets objectives completed quickly and without hesitation. In George Orwell’s “1984” the dangers of a corrupted totalitarian government are illustrated through the plot of Winston Smith, the main character whom decides to challenge The Party’s power and authority after he commits a thoughtcrime. Also when Orwell published his novel he released this statement to protect his intentions, “My recent novel is NOT intended as an attack on Socialism or the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter) but as a show-up of the perversions to which a centralized economy is liable and which have already been partly realized in Communism and Fascism” (Bloom 44). As Orwell states, he is not attacking any forms of government or countries that seem similar, he is simply alerting us to the dangers of a totalitarian government and the effects it can have on society. George Orwell uses contradictions throughout his novel and these contradictions seem to be the very backbone of The Party. The totalitarian government in the novel, otherwise known as The Party, achieves the goal of absolute power of their kingdom at the expense of the attributes that set human beings apart from animals. The Party achieves this goal through the destruction of history, language, and intimacy.
Orwell reveals how ignorant people are due to Big Brother erasing history. In the beginning of the novel, the main character’s job is describe to be rewriting history, “By 2050, earlier. Probably- all real knowledge of old speak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed.” (Orwell pg.65) Literature such as Shakespeare will be destroyed due to the government’s censorship rules. 1984 is ban by the government in Russia, thus readers know that if government can censor this book, imagine what else the government can block. Later on in the novel, Winston explains to O’Brien about what will happen to history, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” (Orwell pg. 313) Throughout history, it is obvious that our
Dystopian novels are written to reflect the fears a population has about its government and they are successful because they capture that fright and display what can happen if it is ignored. George Orwell wrote 1984 with this fear of government in mind and used it to portray his opinion of the current government discretely. Along with fear, dystopian novels have many other elements that make them characteristic of their genre. The dystopian society in Orwell’s novel became an achievement because he utilized a large devastated city, a shattered family system, life in fear, a theme of oppression, and a lone hero.
In the book 1984, George Orwell demonstrates that a society can turn into a totalitarian regime if a Dictator such as Kim Jong Un takes over the nation by manipulating the military, media and government. In 1984 Big brother leads the government to control the past and the future through the manipulation of the present. “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell, 37) this is exemplified through the manipulation of social values and beliefs through the revision of history. Big brother controls society, the party eliminates the teaching of the past; the party re-writes history to help them control the future. Some may argue that there is still hope and there are people out there who have the thoughts of freedom to change the nation to a better place.
A Reason for Bad Language Education? In George Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language,” the reason for the decline of the English Language is explored, which is the result of the influence of political customs on the weakening of the English language. Orwell’s main point in the essay is that language is in decline of politics, which is the policy or influence on a certain system, a natural growth, and that politics cannot stay out of the English Language (Orwell 156). From Orwell’s claim, a question is posed about factors that influence the decline of the English language: If politics is an influence on a certain system, can there be other factors that drive the decline of the language, specifically the educational system? Orwell states several examples of how politics advances the decline of the English Language, but he misses a vital point that has negative effects on the English Language: the educational system which, in time, encourages people to conceal the truth about certain topics, be more vague in what they are really trying to say, and to conform to “social norms,” specifically to what people want to hear.
“The only genuine dangers are the splitting-off of a new group of able, underemployed, power-hungry people, and the growth of liberalism and skepticism in their own ranks” (Orwell, 171). Liberalism is founded upon equality. Whereas the society they live in is ruled by a dictator. The party can’t have their members begin to question the system and start their own groups. That would put the idea in other’s minds and give them the option to follow; individual thinking is not allowed. If a new group were to start up they could steal the power from Big Brother and turn the people against them, causing the society they currently live in to crumble. To insure that this does not happen, education is key. The less people are taught, the less likely they are to become conscious and revolt.
A perfect world can be defined as a world with no conflict, pristine streets, no pollution, to say there has to be nothing wrong with the world. Should a perfect world exist in our country, the United States? Well with a perfect world, it’ll mean we’ll have no pollution, our streets pristine, no crime, and government controls all. Wait government controlling us? Don't we have rights or individual freedom? Well in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the story depicts a utopian society in which government, or Big Brother, controls the history of Oceania and the thoughts of the citizens, often intruding in their private lives. This utopian society wants everyone the same, and keep their citizens in check about their government. The utopian society,