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1984 Newspeak Language Analysis

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Delving Deeper into the Control of Big Brother
Imagine tasting an extremely delicious treat and not being able to come up with the perfect word to describe it, because the only available words are “good” “plusgood” and “doubleplusgood.” This is the goal Oceania is aiming for by 2050 with their official language, Newspeak. By then Old Speak (Standard English) will vanish and Newspeak will take its place to “meet the ideological needs of Ingnos, or English Socialism” (Orwell 299). Newspeak can be categorized into three sections: A vocabulary, B vocabulary, and C vocabulary. Each vocabulary is responsible for removing words that are deemed “unorthodox” or go against the views of Oceania. Its purpose is to remove all “thoughtcrime” and leave room for only “goodthink.” When Newspeak comes into full …show more content…

People will be unable to translate Oldspeak causing "the last link with the past" (Orwell 311) to be erased. Newspapers, books, or journals containing Oldspeak will not be understandable, making each material useless. For example, the Declaration of Independence will be impossible to translate into Newspeak while maintaining its original meaning of equality. The passage will merely be translated into a single word, crimethink. Words contained in Oldspeak like “honor, justice, morality, internationalism, democracy, science and religion” (page 305) that express significant concepts will be nonexistent. People will not be able to protest an unfair regulation or act because there will be no words to defend their detest or issue. Without the ability to read Oldspeak, nobody will be able to know how the past was and hold the belief that it was always like this. This will allow Big Brother to finally have complete control of the past, present, and future without any barriers in the

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