In the first reading Orwell’s essay, I was skeptical of the author linguistic critique. Once I completed the reading, however, I realized that I too agreed with him in some instances while also disagreed with others. The aspect I found myself disagreed with Orwell is in his extensive lists of banned words and phrases of his “pretentious diction” paragraph. Orwell places his thought process to prohibit the use of words like historical, inevitable, phenomenon and many others. It is understandable that some element of the English vocabulary seems to stimulate sentences for sounding more sophisticated, but Orwell thought of banning against the selective diction is not needed. It can imagine a politician delivering the keynote speech would want
Within the passage of 1984, Orwell utilizes dismissive diction. Through his use of diction, Syme attempts to cast upon a negative sense towards Oldspeak to Winston. He does so when he claims ”if you want a stronger version of “good”, what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like “excellent” and “splendid”” (Orwell 1). By expressing Oldspeak as having “useless” and “vague” terms, Syme aims for Winston to develop a negative feeling towards the language.
Orwell exaggerated how much the government controls by implementing concepts such as Newspeak, Thoughtcrime, and the surveillance by The Party through the use of telescreens. His purpose in these exaggerations is to make a statement about censorship, individualism, and authoritarian government. The concept of Newspeak in the book is to censor and control the people through the manipulation of the English language. It is meant to be a revised version of the English language that minimizes the language to limit how people communicate with others. This is meant as an exaggeration for the purpose of making a statement about censorship and euphemisms as well as being used as a main plot point.
George Orwell has left a lasting impression on the lives of his audience despite only living for forty-six years. Known for his politically critical novels, Orwell’s material is proven relevant, even today, to explain situations pertaining to society or to government. However, the question of how Orwell understood totalitarianism to the extent that he did remains. On June 25, 1903, this Anglo-French writer, originally named Eric Arthur Blair, was born in Motihari, India, to Richard Blair and Ida Limouzin. At a young age, Orwell was sent to a convent run by French nuns, where his hatred of Catholicism was established.
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.
What is a hero? A hero is someone who has the ability to rise above challenges and is brave enough to sacrifice himself for others. In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, by definition, Winston Smith can be considered the novels hero. This is because of his strength and bravery to go against the party. While reader can admire Winston, they can over exceed his actions.
Idioms An idiom is a phrase or a fixed expression having a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom 's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning. In linguistics, idioms are presumed to be figures of speech contradicting the principle of compositionality.
Sex creates an extremely exclusive bond between two individuals; it’s an unspoken contract of trust and love. Not only are sexual experiences private, but they also fulfill humanity’s instinctual desire and promote individuality. However, when this intimacy is either erased or condemned by society, individuals lose touch with that vital part of their humanity and individuality. In 1984 by George Orwell, sexuality plays an important role in both Oceania’s totalitarian government and Winston’s rebellion against his oppressors; as he explores his sexuality, Winston revolts against the Party’s manipulative political control, the destruction of individuality, the absence of human connection, and the practice of sexual puritanism.
The pen is mightier than the sword, but sometimes the pen is misused. In Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize Speech and George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, Morrison and Orwell have very different writing styles, but both write about a common issue. Both well-known authors use different techniques to express their views on what language has become. In Morrison’s speech, she uses figurative language to describe how language is oppressive. In Orwell’s essay, he uses a formal and straightforward tone to criticize modern political language.
1984 by George Orwell makes several statements about control, security, and how governments should treat their citizens. However, a reader can also look at chapters 1-7 of the book as a statement on social classes and how the government keeps everyone in a certain social class. What values does the work reinforce? The book is mainly about control of the government.
Have you ever felt that someone is watching everything you do when you are using your digital device? The National Security Agency is an organization where they get to see every single thing you do on social media. Nineteen Eighty-Four is a political book where George Orwell expresses his thoughts on today’s society. George Orwell wrote his novel in nineteen forty-nine and politically predicted how society would be decades in the future. Orwell was accurate in making these predictions, which were effective because the novel’s predictions were right.
Orthodox A sense of normalcy is a very prominent characteristic in every society, past and present. Every person wants to be like the next and George Orwell clearly taps into this instinct in 1984. In the futuristic society that Orwell writes of, everyone is forced to be completely normal or face dire consequences.
Orwell was close in his prediction of the superstates of the world. He likely based his prediction on the military alliances at the time that he wrote the book, the culture of the countries, as well as geographic location. For example, Oceania includes many of the countries that were allied with the United States at the time. That includes Australia, most of the Americas, Southern Africa, a few Western European, and a few other countries around the world. Orwell probably believed that Oceania would be able to annex the few remaining allies of the USSR in the Americas, and would be able to keep Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom because of the cultural similarity between the countries.
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.
Everything brought into this world exists and takes up space, these things have their own reason for existence. These reasons are also a part of their essence. The basic nature of a thing defines the word “essence”, it is also the quality that makes something what it is. The famous author George Orwell said: “The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one’s love upon other human individuals”. This saying by George Orwell tells us to be prepared for life’s
Along with this, Orwell openly portrays his anger revolving around the destruction of the English Language. In prior writings, Orwell displays his disgust at the evolution of language and his unhappiness in the migration of shorter, unexaggerated sentences to the lengthy wording of simple phrases. In Orwell's writing titled “Politics and the English Language,” he states “no modern writer of the kind I am discussing- no one capable of using phrases like “objective consideration of contemporary phenomena”- would ever tabulate his thoughts in that precise and detailed way,” a passage which thoroughly depicts Orwells contempt of modern writers. By incorporating Old English language into his writings, Orwell subtly displays his unrest with the modernization of our language.