How Is Language Used In 1984

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In his novel 1984, George Orwell illustrates a society in which language is politicized and used by the totalitarian government to control its citizens. Language is a system used by all humans to communicate ideas and thoughts, and society would be impossible without the culture that is stored in language (“Discuss the Nature…”). However, while language can be used to increase our understanding of the world, when left in the power of the political leaders, it can be used to control people’s thoughts. Language can be used as mind-control to create a society in which the people obey and believe the government’s propaganda without question. Therefore, language structures—and limits— what humans are capable of thinking and expressing. Individuals …show more content…

As Syme mentioned to Winston, “Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year” (Orwell 52). The purpose of this is to cut down on people’s vocabulary so that there are no words to express certain thoughts which the government does not want you to think about. If there is no word in a language to describe a particular thought, then that thought becomes much more difficult to process and communicate. Arfon states in his article, “to expand language is to expand the ability to think” (Archon). For example, as children learn more words and increase their vocabulary, they are able to express more thoughts and ideas. The government of Oceania ultimately aims to abolish thoughtcrime, a term in Newspeak used to describe any thought that they deem inappropriate, including thoughts of pleasure, individualism, and …show more content…

In 1984, the state-run media is the primary source of propaganda which is used to control people. The citizens of Oceania were “slaves of the media” (Berkes), and they blindly followed the media as an oracle. When the telescreen announced an increase in the chocolate ration, Winston was the only one who recalled that the alleged increase was actually a reduction from the previous day. He was surprised to see that everyone around him was swallowing this obvious lie up. Orwell writes, “Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal. The eyeless creature at the other table swallowed it fanatically, passionately, with a furious desire to track down, denounce, and vaporize anyone who should suggest that last week the ration had been thirty grams” (Orwell 58). By manipulating language, one can mask the truth and present a distorted reality. Another example in the novel is that the media continually referred to the Ministries of Truth, Peace, Love and Plenty, but these names are the complete opposite of what they actually dealt with. The Ministry of Truth falsifies records and rewrites history, the Ministry of Peace deals with warfare, the Ministry of Love is where suspected criminals are tortured and questioned, and the Ministry of Plenty lies about the economic conditions of Oceania, despite the war which caused major shortages. In addition, the Party media generates war propaganda to make people believe that

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