1. Orwell’s thesis is that cause and effect are closely related, which is implied and stated. 2. In paragraph 2, Orwell 's analogy of the cause and effect of alcohol abuse to the demise of language is effective because it shows the repeating loop of alcoholism. A man drinks alcohol because he may feel upset, but then he gets himself into deeper trouble because of it. In the English language, there are also bad habits that can be avoided. Thinking clearly is the first step to getting rid of alcoholism and bad writing habits.
3. The figure of speech used in paragraph 4 is “phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse,” which is a simile. It compares how phrases are connected like sections of a prefabricated henhouse. It is effective since it creates a illustration for the reader. In paragraph 5, Orwell writes “but in between these two classes there is a huge
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Comparing stale phrases to tea leaves, shows the block the writer has in which he cannot communicate to his readers because of his …show more content…
The tone of Orwell’s essay is formal. Throughout the entire essay, Orwell is informative and professional to achieve ethos. Orwell stays professional even when he is expressing his feelings, for example, in this passage, “In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing. Where it is not true, it will generally be found that the writer is some kind of rebel, expressing his private opinions and not a ‘party line’. Orthodoxy, of whatever colour, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style. The political dialects to be found in pamphlets, leading articles, manifestos, white papers and the speeches of undersecretaries do, of course, vary from party to party, but they are all alike in that one almost never finds in them a fresh, vivid, homemade turn of speech.” Orwell does not veer off topic and continues to be
Diction: While George Orwell used fairly simple and uncomplicated diction to tell the story many of his words still have a very powerful diction. In the first chapter the protagonist Winston is attack by the smell of “boiled cabbage and old rag mats”. This is the first indication to the nature of the living conditions of our protagonist. However, Orwell also uses his diction to create the atmosphere of Oceania with lines like “the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no colour in anything”. These lines contain powerful words like cold, torn, and harsh and these worlds help paint the picture of what kind of story we are reading.
This essay is distinctly about how life experiences alter the way in which your writings travel. The ups and downs of life will determine the perspective you see of your life, in turn, determining how you feel or express yourself. Orwell states, “his subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in – at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own” (265). This statement proves how writing develops with age and how through different time periods, has evolved. Orwell's essay focuses on the indirect wants.
The whole point of this novel is to teach the reader, because during Orwell’s life he has experiences many things that have inspired him for this novel, which makes you think that it is possible for a world like the one which Winston lives in. Orwell’s inspiration came from such leaders like when Bolshevik gaining control of the Russian Revolution. Also experiencing the European Fascism, under Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy. Yet even though many years have pasted since the time of any totalitarian governments the book is still very relevant to today’s society.
Orwell argues that society is completely oblivious to the constraint that is involved in every day life. There is no individual in society and that everyone remains the same. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?” (46) Not only does a limiting of words show society that by controlling methods of co...
Orwell has real concerns about the way in which society worked, particular when considering hierarchies and the way the powerful manipulate information. As can be seen there is a strong hierarchy system in the novel 1984 with references to poor and wealthy classes, the proles being lower class and the inner party members being higher class. Orwell spent time in boarding school, wasn’t wealthy and saw disparity between people who had and hadn’t, there are many references towards headmaster and control “ When he spoke it was in a schoolmasterish kind of way” (3.5.297). Orwell also used Hitler’s actions as a leader and incorporated them into 1984; this is evident through the propaganda of Big Brother, dictatorship and the way the Inner party was able to manipulate society to change their beliefs. “The German Nazis and the communist came very close to us in their methods…” (3.3.276) Orwell’s values and beliefs about communism and democracy have strongly been developed through his trepidation in power and historical references to Hitler.
Another keen example of Orwell using imagery would be when Orwell describes the taste of the pills in which the protagonist uses within the first chapter, saying that it instantly turned “...his face turned scarlet and the water ran out his eyes. The stuff was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club.” (Orwell 5). This entire passage describes the disgusting flavor of a pill in which the human body’s natural reaction to it is that of rejection, however it clearly is some sort of drug as later within the passage it talks about how the protagonist goes into a state of bliss and peacefulness. With the imagery the author puts into place about the pill it also hints at the possibility that the pills themselves might not be too good for the protagonist as the initial effects of it leaves his body in a state of disgust as described in the quote. During the first chapter Orwell describes “The hallways of boiled
...ements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him." (Bookshelf 1994) In essence Orwell is trying to let people know that they should be aware about what is going on around them. You can't expect everything to fall in your lap, you have to go out and get it, or someday someone will get it for you- and it will be too late to change it. Human nature wants to be passive and have decisions made for them. through this venue, free will and choice is lost and a totalitarian government will prevail causing democracy to be forgotten.
By writing the setting in this way, Orwell causes the reader to subconsciously associate the world of 1984, totalitarianism, The Party, and Big Brother with negativity; they begin to see Winston as a victim of the regime. Another excellent example of this is the way that Orwell describes the standard lunch issue. Orwell writes, “Onto each was swiftly dumped the regulation lunch – metal pannikin of pinkish-gray stew, a hunk of bread, a cube of cheese, a mug of milkless Victory Coffee, and one saccharine tablet.” (1948) The most poignant description is obviously that of the stew, but describing the bread as a hunk and noting the lack of milk in the coffee helps to get his point across further.
Howe, Tom. "George Orwell." British Writers Volume VII. Ed. Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Scribner, 1984. 273-287.
Political leaders persuades individual to make a change in society by using meaningless words in the government. Many powerful leaders known in today's world have made enormous change through their words. In "Political and the English Language", George Orwell argues politicians has been using meaningless words to give to the audience one idea, while they are thinking of another. In "The Declaration of Independence", Thomas Jefferson writes about the struggles the colonies go through but uses meaningless words to blame it on solely on the king. Whether the leader uses meaningless words or the correct term, a political leader influences society to make change with their use of words.
Orwell, George. “Politics and the English Language.” George Orwell: Critical Essays. London: Harvill Secker: 2009. 270-286. Print.
...art of the whole society and have greater power through the amount of support for the party, while those who believe otherwise are less powerful as their support is much less and limited. Orwell shows how those who do not conform will end up being taken down by those with the power and there is not much anyone could do about that. Those who believed in change and tried to change the society only ended up meeting failure as majority rules, those with more power will overpower the weak and succeed.
George Orwell’s intent in the novel 1984 is to warn society about the results of a controlling and manipulative government by employing mood, conflict, and imagery.
One of Orwell’s distinctive characteristics is his emphasis of his emotional response to life and death in every situation. Orwell engages readers in his pieces because they feel that they can sit back and imagine what is going on in every situation through the narrator’s eyes. Every sentence is a new description that touches the audience’s emotions. In “A Hanging,” Orwell describes the death sentence scene by stating, “gripping the prisoner more closely than ever, they half led, half pushed him to the gallows and helped him clumsily up the ladder. Then the hangman climbed up and fixed the rope round the prisoner’s neck” (Orwell: A Hanging). Orwell’s perspective on the scene was that the prisoner was slowly walking to his death in a torturous way. He focuses on the sadness he feels versus other people’s perspectives and feelings. It seems that Orwell does not take death easily, so he uses evocative words to describe the trauma through his eyes. In “Shooting an Elephant,”Orwell’s point of view is that killing the elephant will not only hurt the animal, but it will destroy his own pride as a reluctant shooter. He looks at the big picture, but he also identifies with the subj...
Orwell’s views on English language is to be as direct and concise as possible to convey the message to the reader. Writing needs to be understandable to any person who reads it hence being as simple as possible. Orwell created rules of writing to do help writers convey their ideas to the reader without confusion of the message. The rules are simple and are outlined as: Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print; Never use a long word where a short one can be used; If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out; Never use the passive where you can use the active; Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent; Break any