Political leaders persuades individual to make a change in society by using meaningless words in the government. Many powerful leaders known in today's world have made enormous change through their words. In "Political and the English Language", George Orwell argues politicians has been using meaningless words to give to the audience one idea, while they are thinking of another. In "The Declaration of Independence", Thomas Jefferson writes about the struggles the colonies go through but uses meaningless words to blame it on solely on the king. Whether the leader uses meaningless words or the correct term, a political leader influences society to make change with their use of words.
George Orwell critiques writers on using words that do not
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mean anything to what they are writing about. In his text Orwell writes, "In certain kinds of writing particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passage which are almost completely lacking in meaning" (Orwell 4). Many people use words which seems like they belong in the text, when really they do not. Orwell uses as an example “black and white, dead and living” (Orwell 4). Black and white are colors that have been substituted for the words dead and living. In a sentence, one would “neighborhood was alive” or “the party was dead”. Had the writer used the words black and white the sentence, then it would meaningless. Words that mean one thing, but are used for another is what Orwell would call meaningless words. When using these, the entire sentence or passages lacks meaning, for the meaning of the word can change the entire meaning of a sentence or even the passage. Orwell argues that words in the text have no agreed upon definition.By choosing a word with no agreed upon definition, the writer allows the audience to think something else.
Orwell writes “That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition but allows his hearer to think he means something else” (Orwell 5).As stated earlier, meaningless words are words that have one meaning but are used for another. A word can have many definitions to it. For example one person might think the word “romance” means a candle light dinner on a beach at sunset, while someone else might think it means climbing to the top of a mountain with their significant other. There is no agreed upon definition to the words. So when politicians use them in their speeches, the audience might think the politicians mean one things, when really the politicians actually mean something else. Another example would be the expression “getting justice”. Someone might think that to get justice the accused would have to go jail without any bail or patrol, while someone else might believe that getting justice means, the accuser would have to get the same treatment they forced upon the victim.What Orwell means is depending on the content of the word, the meaning may change depending on who the audience
is. George Orwell believes that leaders should not make something longer than it seems. By making the text shorter, the writer can prove their point. He writes “If consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug” (Orwell 6). Do not make something longer than it should be is what Orwell is saying. Many people has a habit of making things longer than it seems. People have already put together a bunch of words making a sentence giving out a thought and other people will add to the sentence making the message longer (Orwell 6). For example, Orwell says rather than using the words “I think”, one would be more likely to use “In my opinion it is not an unjustifiable assumption”. Politicians often use this to because it seem like they put more effort into their speech, when they have not.. Orwell says if one was to use a ready made phrase they do not have to think of one, or search for one. It makes writing easier and quicker; it also get straight to the point of what one has to say. As Orwell is critiquing political leaders for using meaningless words in the text, Thomas Jefferson does exactly that. In “The Declaration of Independence”, Jefferson writes “He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people” (Jefferson 3). The meaningless word Jefferson uses here is “he”. “He” means the King - King George III to be exact - is the one to blame for the struggles the colonies went through. By writing “he” in the text, Jefferson could be talking about the anybody, as he does not outright state “it is the King's fault”.Jefferson is using a meaningless word because the King did not have all the power during that time. The parliament was the deciding factor in most of the laws, and what went on the the colonies and in the English towns of Britain. By writing the word “he” rather than the King or King George III, Jefferson could mean anyone in the text. So by constantly using the word “he”, Jefferson is allowing readers to believe he is talking about someone else rather than the King himself. Trying to provide example of how the colonies are treated badly, Jefferson makes the example longer than they should be. Writing the Declaration of Independence provides example within it to have the colonist agree with him, and to show the King why they are declaring their own independence. But as the text goes on, Jefferson starts using examples that makes no sense; examples that the King has no control over. “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and condition” (Jefferson 3). As the last example of how the King is treating the colonies badly, Jefferson puts the blame on the king for Native Americans attacking the colonists. The king has no control over the Native Americans, nor could he have stopped them as he is across the seas. Instead of leaving the Declaration of Independence with the examples that true, Jefferson adds absurd examples to it. This is what Orwell meant when he writes “It consists in gumming together long strips of words which has already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug” (Orwell 6). It makes no sense to add an example like in that in the text, as it does not have anything to do with the King. Jefferson just adds to it, it make it seem as if there are more examples of how the King has treated the Colonies badly. Though he used meaningless words, Jefferson managed to empower the individuals of the New World. Regardless of all the meaningless words and added on sentences in Declaration of Independence, all of the colonist agreed with Jefferson and thus lead to the Revolutionary War. Orwell talks about meaningless words and how politicians uses them in the wrong, but sometimes by the use of meaningless words by a politician, they can empower the people to agree with them. Jefferson used many meaningless words but he had the colonist agreed with him, he empowered to declare their independence, their rights from the King.
“Give me liberty or give me death!” (72). These are the famous words Patrick Henry delivered to the delegates of Virginia in 1775. As times of war were quickly approaching the colonies, Henry gave this speech to the Virginia Convention, urging the delegates to fight against Britain. These passionate words continue to ring over the United States today, now a free nation partially due to his patriotic speech. How was Henry able to persuade the delegates on such a controversial topic at the time? With the use of repetition, metaphors, and rhetorical questions, Henry is able to create the persuasive piece of literature, Speech in the Virginia Convention, that not only changed the views of the delegates in 1775, but changed the future of America.
The eighteenth century, a time of turmoil and chaos in the colonies, brought many opinionated writers to the forefront in support or refutation of the coming American Revolution. This highly controversial war that would ultimately separate the future United States of America from Great Britain became the center of debate. Two writers, both of whom supported the Revolution, now stand to fully illuminate one side of the debate. Thomas Paine, a radical propagandist, wrote many pieces during this time including “The Crisis Number 1” (1776). Through writing, he appealed to the “common man” in order to convince them to gather their arms and fight for their freedom. In this document, he utilizes many of the same rhetorical skills and propaganda techniques as Patrick Henry, a convincing orator, did in his famous speech delivered to the state’s delegates in 1775. Among these techniques are transfer, abstract language, and pathos. In both works, these were used to call the audiences to war. These influential pieces both contained a call to action which, through the use of strong and decisive language, aided the beginning of the American Revolution.
In the essay “From Ancient Greece to Iraq, the Power of Words in Wartime” by Robin Tolmach Lakoff, Lakoff discusses the fact that words are a tool as well when it comes to wars. She talks about the differences between our natural want and ability to kill things, and the mental training soldiers receive to make it easier for them. Lakoff talks about the practice of dehumanizing the “enemy” through nicknames that make us feel superior then our foes, and the repercussions of using this type of language. In the essay by George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”, Orwell talks about the decay of the English language, especially in political writings. He discusses the fact that when it comes to writing, political being the main focus, it’s
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 language used inThe Declaration Of Independence is that of an oppressed people who wishes to be free from their bonds and chains. Jefferson's audience was the people of the world, especially the King and his parliament officials. Jefferson wanted the king and the world to know that it was unfair for a mother country to judge and executed them, imposed taxes, and trade restrictions on the colonists without their own consent or representation in parliament.
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
One of the greatest conflicts in the history of the United State of America, the Revolutionary War, was started when the colonies of North America declared themselves independent from British rule. A group of men known as the Founding Fathers, which included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John and Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and others, formed the Continental Congress to rule their new nation. They chose Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, which they would send to King George III to make their independence official. Jefferson knew that he needed to use strong language to make a solid agrument against British rule in the colonies and to convince the colonists that independence was the only choice to maintain their freedom as human beings. The powerful use of parallelism, ethos, pathos, and logos helpd Thomas Jefferson to convey his idea that all men are created equal with unalienable rights and that it is the duty of the government to protect those rights.
Rhetorical Analysis: The Declaration of Independence. Our Declaration of Independence, was penned most notably by Thomas Jefferson in response to the atrocities committed by the British Crown against the citizens of the American Colonies. At the time of the drafting of The Declaration, Jefferson was widely known to be a successful practitioner of Law as a lawyer, and an eloquent writer. It is due to this, that although Jefferson was a member of a five-man committee charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was tapped to be the main author. After enduring “a long train of abuses and usurpations” the colonists decided to declare themselves free of British rule (para 2).
1) The device Orwell uses to introduce his thesis are chiasmi. The first chiasmus is “A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks” and the second chiasmus is “It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” Both sentences are examples of chiasmus since they reverse key terms in their clauses, the key terms being “drinking” and “failure” in the first, and the state of the language and “foolish thoughts” in the second sentence.
Many people can relate to receiving an essay paper back in which they believe that the grading is unfair. Grammatical errors, style, and subject are areas that receive the most attention. However, it may not be the writers’ work that is ineffective, maybe it 's the English language itself that is lacking in quality. Similarly, George Orwell in " Politics and the English Language" convinces the audience that the causes of the decline in the English language are the vagueness and meaningless of prose that is receiving impact from political jargon. Orwell effectively persuades the readers by addressing opposing views, providing examples that offer support to sub-claims, and creating reader connections while simultaneously
Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence is one of the most famous influential documents ever produced. The declaration led to the freedom of the Thirteen Colonies which in turn sparked the independence of much of the Western Hemisphere. “When in the course of human events” and the following text are now some of the most recognizable words in all of historical documents.
Thomas Jefferson was who authored extraordinary words and it was there words that changed a nation. Jefferson’s ability to write made him prominent author of write the Declaration of Independence, (among other significant works). Jefferson’s writings reflected on the rights of mankind and what rights a government must offer its people. His use of words to fight for Human rights makes him one of the greatest American Hero’s. Thomas Jefferson’s writings on basic human rights caused a radical shift in American Colonist thoughts and these stunning ideas would influence the Americans to break away from Great Britain.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to persuade the people to agree to a Revolution against England using powerful word choice, personification and parallelism in his sentence structure. The use of these methods makes the Declaration of Independence a stylistic and artistic masterpiece.
The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson between June 11th and 28th of 1776. This document was created to demonstrate a new concept of government, resonating the thirteen colonies’ reasons for separating from England and declaring war. Moreover, to dissolve the political relationship that America had with England’s laws. This document’s rhetoric was directed at King George the third. Jefferson constructs a philosophical statement that carries the peoples voice and appeals to his readers through fundamental beliefs. Lewis Masquerier adopted this philosophical statement in his document, Declaration of Independence of the Producing from the Non-Producing Class in 1844. The underling theme is almost the same, equality for men and the right to liberate one-self from oppression. However, Masquerier’s declaration has many similarities but at the same time many differences, such as the topic of social reform instead of political. Masquerier notices the importance of the original document 68 years later creating a historical difference in tone, style, and rhetoric. Non-the less, both documents utilize langue to influence the audience and call for a social reform established by concepts of Marxism using rhetoric.
When presenting a serious issue utilizing a specific and concrete diction is essential. The Declaration of Independence includes many formal formulated sentences. In the very first paragraph, Thomas Jefferson includes a phrase with words like “necessary for one people to dissolve political bands” which formed a sense of how the people felt. Jefferson used “necessary” as a key word because its gives the impression that the colonists were determined to compel as it says. The colonies were ready to break the ties and walk on their own. Moreover, when writing of the king of Britain and his actions, Jefferson’s diction is sharp. “But when a long train of abuses and usur...