George Orwell's Politics And The English Language

George Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language” discusses the effect that political and economic changes have on the language of a society. Orwell’s essay is based largely on his opinion that the English language has declined as a result of the economic and political changes that the world experienced. He explains how simple English is more effective for telling someone what you want to say instead of using large, confusing and foreign words that will only make you sound smart. Orwell argues that these words are useless and that they fill our essays with words that take away the meaning of the essay and have no value. Orwell creates a tone of dominance over his writing. He makes readers feel that he is in charge of his writing and

One way is by using description. An example of description comes in when Orwell analyzes the five examples of bad English that he gave us at the beginning of his writing. Orwell uses both his opinions to describe these passages and factual evidence such as the number of words, number of syllables, and the number of foreign words. He describes to his readers why each of his five examples goes with his opinion that English has changed and against his opinion that English should be kept simple. Orwell also uses comparison and contrast. An example of this comes in when Orwell compares the verse from Ecclesiastes and his modern day translation. He compares the two passages in terms of factual evidence, number of words, but also on his opinion. After comparing and contrasting the two, Orwell shares his opinion that the Ecclesiastes verse is better written because it is simpler. Orwell also utilizes the rhetorical strategy of cause and effect. The most obvious of these examples comes in when he says,” German, Russian, and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last ten or fifteen years, as a result of dictatorship.” This passage lists the cause of the deterioration as the change in government. Orwell’s entire essay is actually based on this cause and effect of government changing