Utilitarianism In 1984

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Recommended: Brief introduction of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Famous American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures”(Emerson). It is implied that fiction is false and truly a figment of human imagination and creativity; however, Emerson does admit that fictional writing does bring to light areas of reality that have not been uncovered. Fictional novels transcend time, unlike non-fictional writing which can be proven false and cast away, so as time passes, fictional novels begin take on a multitude of meanings as the real world evolves, illuminating infinite truths within the advancing world. This can observed in George Orwell’s novel 1984 in which he expresses his view of the year 1984 from his viewpoint in 1949, ultimately illustrating dangers of …show more content…

For instance, early on in the novel, Winston has a conversation with Syme, an editor for the dictionary of Newspeak (the language created by the Party), which results in Syme passionately saying, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime [ideas against the values of the Party] literally impossible, because there will no words in which to express it”(52). The Party designed and continues to design Newspeak as a mean of extermination, complete elimination of the words that contain connotations regarding freedom or liberty as democratic states view it. In accomplishing this, the Party plans to effectively obliterate any chance of rebellion as their citizens progressively have weaker and weaker vocabulary to voice ideas of anti-Party value. In its most basic form, Newspeak causes citizens to lose their sense of opinion, and thus, fall into being a replaceable cog in society. These horrific ideas are evident in modern society, particularly the next generation of humanity that has grown up entirely with technological advancements that increase efficiency like texting, as explained by an article of the Sunday Times written in January 2010 by Sian Griffiths and Chris Gourlay titled “Textspeak leaves teens facing a language barrier in jobs market” in which they write, “Teenagers are spending more time communicating through electronic media and text messaging, which is short and brief. We need to help today’s teenagers understand the difference between their textspeak and the formal language they need to succeed in life -800 words will not get you a job [800 words is in reference to their assumption that teens only use a maximum of 800 different words

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