Language And Thought In George Orwell's 1984

In 1984, a dystopian novel written by George Orwell, proles are represented as being generally incompetent in the ability to think and rebel against their stolen rights. However, as the story progresses, Winston comes to a realization that proles are the only ones with the character of human beings and the strength to gain consciousness to overthrow the party. Through this characterization of the proles, Orwell satirizes the detrimental effects of Stalin’s totalitarian government in employing total control and perpetual surveillance of the people in USSR to maintain an established hierarchy. The nature of how the system views the proles is clearly visible through the treatment and description of the proles in the eyes of Winston.

In George Orwell’s book, 1984, he places a great emphasis on the concept of Newspeak, which is, an altered form of the English language designed and controlled by the Party in order to suppress individualism. Newspeak diminishes the span of thoughts which leads to their memory being shortened. Orwell believed that a totalitarian regime and the corruption of language were connected. He focused especially on political language where you distorted events and concepts by calling them something else. You said things in such a way that you avoided producing an inner picture of them.

Manipulation of language is one of the themes of George Orwell's 1984. Language manipulation was one of the many ways the Inner Party controlled the population. The Ministry of Truth did this by creating a new language, Newspeak. This language was constructed to have no words for any unorthodox thoughts. Some of which are: that the government is bad, things could be better, or even life could be lived differently.

There are some who would argue that "Our civilization is decadent and our language — so the argument runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse" (Orwell 529). Some would refute this saying that our language is not dying but evolving and to a certain degree they are right. The English language has evolved over centuries of time even splitting into multiple dialects such as British, Australian, and American. Each has their own terms, phrases, and even words that the others do not use. These people who seek to destroy Orwell's essay would say that this evolution is natural and that nothing should be done to stop it.

The Destruction of Language Language plays a vital role in society. It is the outline of culture, behavior, and communication. Although it is so important, just shortening the vocabulary of the people will not narrow the range of thought enough to eliminate the possibility of rebellion and disobedience. In the book, 1984, this idea is experimented with to help the reader better comprehend how powerful words can be, and that people with smaller vocabularies would not necessarily think less, but have to try harder to express their feelings. It is in human nature to freely express who you are and do what you want, but there are ways to do this other than just speaking and using language.

Linguistic Brainwashing: Newspeak and Its Subjects Each language provides a worldview or the “reality of the world” for the people who speak it. It carries the consciousness of people using it and ideologies employed to explain how lives should be lived. George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel which explores the world if individualism were nonexistent and wars and violence were the norm. These characteristics of a “totally imperfect world” were mainly illustrated through violence and the regulation of the Newspeak language.

By limiting the vocabulary, Newspeak is essentially “unintelligible” and hence controls the people’s understanding of the real world. Orwell emphasises that language is of utmost importance as it structures and limits the ideas individuals are capable of formulating and expressing. In 1984, language is used as a ‘mind control tool’. The party slogan, “war is peace, freedom is

Language: “The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall.” (2) “Day and night the telescreens bruised your ears with statistics proving that people today had more food, more clothes, better houses, better recreations... Not a word of it could be proved or disproved... It was like a single equation with two unknowns” (74) L(1) George Orwell, the author of 1984, uses figurative language within this quote with a perfectly crafted simile.

Politics and the English Language 1) Orwell’s thesis is not directly stated but is implied in paragraph two that English is not really precise and many words are used to confuse, brain wash or have a negative view on people. He uses numerous negative connotations. He gives valid examples about how it can influence people 's thinking though it can be ended if some time is focused on improving it. 7)

George Orwell 's political essay “politics and language,” is about literary rules that are criticized. Orwell believed that these rules should not be broken. The author wrote this essay to show others his perspective of politics and to explain how the rules form today are different. Orwell use of Propaganda and Phraseology helps us infer that he is writing this to his fans , other writers, and everyone in general. This essay is written in a first person point of view.

By using psychological control, private language, and instilling fear, the dystopian society exhibits how the government can exploit the civilization. George Orwell dramatically states, “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 literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it”(Orwell 170). By being the official language of Oceana, Newspeak is an effort by the government to remove meaning and emotion from the dialectal continually stressing the importance of the state. Newspeak, the official language of Oceana, has been created to diminish the possibility of subversive or rebellious thoughts against the government.

The English language has developed in a way that makes the language ugly and imprecise. “Politics and the English Language” written by George Orwell in 1946, illustrates the fact that most people living in the United States generally write very badly and that they have to improve their writing skills. He argues that meaningless words are being used and that people are being lazy when they write. Orwell’s essay is a lesson on how people can improve their writing in a better way than they are now. He examines the connection between the degradation of language and the political orthodoxies.

In Orwell's opinion, the destruction of Language is used to dumb down the people and control the minds of the masses. This ideology is exhibited in the fictional language of Newspeak, the language created by Orwell in the book 1984. The purpose of Newspeak is to lessen the knowledge of the people under the Party and eventually make thought crime impossible. An example of this is in the

INGSOC uses Newspeak as a tool to enforce order and obedience as the oppression of language is essentially the oppression of thought. George Orwell exemplifies the importance of language in his novel, by constructed a world in which language and self-expression are extremely limited and writing of the less than pleasant result. Before elaborating on the effects Newspeak has on Oceania, it must be first be established that Newspeak sole purpose is to corrupt thought. Conventional languages often grow and become more broad with time, however, Newspeak

Nineteen eighty-four is a highly constructed dramatic experience which effectively delineates totalitarianism and controlling governments within Oceania, revealed through its respectable language. The language used by Orwell critics how the dystopian land of Oceania was during the time of the cold war. Within the last paragraph of 1984, Orwell effectively depicts the dystopian world of Oceania and shows that through the extreme control of human nature by using INGSOC’s, the representation of big brother and the act of dehumanisation, portraying that the government is purely a one sided and controlling government. Through Orwell 's use of techniques, he prompts the reader to question the ideals totalitarianism and government control. Thus, the audience is informed that the totalitarian government has a vast amount of capabilities, that can be used ultimately to control the minds of individuals in 1984.