How Does George Orwell Use Language In 1984

725 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Orwell's use of language in 1984

The concept of language manipulation is often utilized by the dominant political force of a society to take control over their citizens. This concept has been used throughout history by various political figures such as dictators. The manipulation of language is a very powerful tool and plays an important role in the way a society is governed. Language itself plays a huge role in any society, and when that is altered or falsified everything changes. In George Orwell’s 1984, the Party’s use of language and the way they manipulate it aids them in keeping the power over the whole society. The Party, in attempt to maintain power over the society, crafted a new, simplistic language called Newspeak. They aim to control the amount a person can …show more content…

They are so powerful that they have been able to utilize language manipulation to make its members believe what the Party wants them to believe. When Winston and Syme are having lunch together and discussing the new edition of the Newspeak Dictionary, Syme says “‘It's a beautiful thing, the Destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn't only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word, which is simply the opposite of some other word?’” (Orwell 51). Syme is just proof of how dominant the Party is over the society. His mind has been completely taken over by the information that the Party wants all the members to know. He …show more content…

Winston’s job in the Ministry of Truth as a clerk in the Records Department is very crucial to the Party. This job is one of the main aspects that allows the Party to continue to hold all of its power. The Records Department is responsible for destroying the evidence that the Party does not want divulged to the public, and the workers are accountable for falsifying the documents for the public. With the description of the job at the Records Department, it mentioned that “The Times … have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were … necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy” (Orwell 40). The Party alters the past to secure their power in the present and the future. Their dominance is again revealed by the fact that they change the most miniscule information to make sure it conforms to the society that they have created. Winston and all of his fellow employees are so used to this daily routine that they do not even know what they are doing due to the Party’s power over the whole society of 1984. The Party’s dominance over all of the members in the society is because of their ability to strategically use language

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Paradoxes In George Orwell's '1984'

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the rising action, Winston recalls his memories and fails to remember a period after the revolution when Oceania has not been at war. He relives a season about four years from modern times when Oceania had been at war with Eastasia rather than Eurasia; that has been wiped from the memories of the people due to their current circumstances. Winston deviates with what the government claims has happened in the past, yet “… the Party [can] thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened, that, surely, [is] more terrifying than mere torture and death” (34). In order for the people to believe that the past as they remember it is inaccurate they must have a sense of ignorance about them. The Party favors naive members of society because it makes it much easier to change the past; therefore, increasing their strength. Furthermore, Winston has become accustomed to living in the type of environment where he pretends to trust everything the party expresses. Many characters in the novel are ignorant enough to forever be oblivious to reality; meanwhile, those possessing intelligence will inevitably catch on sooner or later. Winston has lunch with his comrade Syme when he realizes that “…Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like

    Read More

  • Rebellion in George Orwell’s 1984 and Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

    1230 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Party and its leader Big Brother play the role of authority in 1984. The Party is always watching the citizens of the Republic of Oceania. This is exemplified in the fact that the government has telescreens through which they can watch you wherever you are set up almost everywhere. Even in the countryside where there are no telescreens, the Party can monitor its citizens through hidden microphones disguised as flowers. The Thought Police are capable of spying on your thoughts at anytime, and can arrest or even kill you on a whim. Not only does the Thought Police find and hunt down felons, but it also scares others into being good citizens. The Party strives to eliminate more and more words from people’s vocabularies. Thus, the Party can destroy any possibilities of revolutions and conspiracies against itself. Its ultimate goal is to reduce the language to only one word, eliminating thought of any kind. The Party makes people believe that it is good and right in its actions through the Ministry of Truth and through the slogans printed on the Ministry of Truth:...

    Read More

  • George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

    1289 Words  | 3 Pages

    Propaganda also plays a central role within the Party's infrastructure and it is used to gain support for Big Brother, stir patriotism and induce hate towards the chosen "enemy" country. Workers in the Ministry of Truth work to change the past, making Big Brother seem to have always been right. Also, the Party seeks to stifle any individual or "potentially revolutionary" thought by introducing a new language, Newspeak, the eradication of English and the deployment of "Thought Police" who terrorize Party members by accusing them of "Thought Crime" (ie. to think a crime is to commit a crime). The introduction of this new language means that eventually, no-one is able to commit thought-crime due to the lack of words to express it.

    Read More

  • 1984

    1981 Words  | 4 Pages

    The party controls every source of information, and doesn't allow people to keep records of their past, such as photographs and documents. As a result, memories become fuzzy and citizens become perfectly will to swallow anything the Party tells them. The ministry of truth where Winston works destroys old documents so BB can never be wrong. The past is constantly falsified and brought up to date. By controlling the present, the Party is able to manipulate the past. And in controlling the past, the Party can justify all its actions in the present. The party has the power to make it as if Winston never existed, so he was never going to make a difference, because no one would hear of his struggle. The ministry of truth would destroy any evidence of his existence, just as Winston himself did to comrade withers.

    Read More

  • Example Of Individualism In 1984

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    When individuals in a society are isolated from one another through communication, it becomes extremely hard for an individual to not conform to insanity. This sort of insanity is sane because everyone else is insane; it is brought to the conclusion that such an individual is normal. It is very important for one to maintain a sense of uniqueness in order to have relations with one another. When oppressed by a Party that takes away basic inalienable rights, publicizes false information, and each individual has a common knowledge of consequences that they might receive from thinking, it is extremely difficult to maintain a sense of reality. Orwell proposes that when an individual faces all of these prohibitions, they are easily manipulated into psychological enslavement.

    Read More

  • Analysis of George Orwell's 1984

    4217 Words  | 9 Pages

    War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. The party slogan of Ingsoc illustrates the sense of contradiction which characterizes the novel 1984. That the book was taken by many as a condemnation of socialism would have troubled Orwell greatly, had he lived to see the aftermath of his work. 1984 was a warning against totalitarianism and state sponsored brutality driven by excess technology. Socialist idealism in 1984 had turned to a total loss of individual freedom in exchange for false security and obedience to a totalitarian government, a dysutopia. 1984 was more than a simple warning to the socialists of Orwell's time. There are many complex philosophical issues buried deep within Orwell's satire and fiction. It was an essay on personal freedom, identity, language and thought, technology, religion, and the social class system. 1984 is more than a work of fiction. It is a prediction and a warning, clothed in the guise of science fiction, not so much about what could happen as it is about the implications of what has already happened. Rather than simply discoursing his views on the social and political issues of his day, Orwell chose to narrate them into a work of fiction which is timeless in interpretation. This is the reason that 1984 remains a relevant work of social and philosophical commentary more than fifty years after its completion.

    Read More

  • 1984 Body Paragraph Essay

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the most essential ways in which feelings are expressed by humans is through language. Without language people are merely robotic figures that can not express their thoughts because language is in fact thought. When this speech is taken away through complete governmental power, a portion of human nature is also taken away. In 1984, due to totalitarianism, language has begun to transform into a poor representation of humanity and natural human expression. Orwell states, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” In the novel, a new language, Newspeak, has emerged. Newspeak has drastically limited the vocabulary of the English language

    Read More

  • Manipulation In 1984 And The Maze Runner

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    Newspeak in 1984 is used to illustrate the idea that language can corrupt thought. Newspeak is used to manipulate Oceania into thinking what Big Brother wants everyone to think. As said “newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year” (49 orwell). Through the use of the new language “newspeak” manipulation is revealed. Newspeak is used as a method of mind control. It makes things hard to explain because their descriptive words are now doublegood and doubleplusgood. Since Oceania has started using this new vocabulary the intelligence of the citizens has increasingly gone down. While using newspeak Big Brother is able to manipulate the citizens into what he thinks is right for Oceania. In this case “the whole aim of newspeak is to narrow the range of thought” (50 orwell). Again we see that the whole purpose of newspeak is to lessen the value of thought and the citizens using the language. The glade in The Maze Runner is used as a safe place for the youths that live there. The glade is surrounded by impossibly high concrete walls on all four sides. The glade is surrounded by the maze, and during the night time the giant doors close, sealing the youths inside or out of the glade. The youths think the glade is a safe place, supposedly, but Wicked still has control over the glade and what happens within or without the it. The use of the

    Read More

  • Free Essay on George Orwell's 1984

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    Winston works for 1 of the 4 government agency’s, The Ministry of Truth. In his job he re-writes old news articles so they show that The Party has always been and will be in control. By re-writing everything in print, The Party effectively changes history. The only proof of actual history is in the minds of the people who were there. Winston realizes that there is something wrong with this, yet he doesn’t know what. The re-writing of history is all he has ever known. It is most likely Winston’s job that leads him to rebel against The Party.

    Read More

  • Utopia As A Dystopian Society

    1762 Words  | 4 Pages

    The citizens are brainwashed into thinking that everything the government does is for the better of the citizens and society as a whole. Big Brother said that the chocolate rations went up even though they didn’t change. Also, they said that they wanted to make the English language shorter to help save time and make it easier to speak. The real reason is to make the citizens less educated so they cannot figure out what the party is really up to. For example, while Syme is talking to Winston he says, “’you think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words-scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting the language down to the bone’” (Orwell 51). The job that Winston’s companion, Syme was given a job to cut the dictionary lots of words instead of adding to them. Syme is

    Read More

  • 1984 Paradox In 1984

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1984 by George Orwell, the world is described as a desolate, bleak result of humanity where the land is governed by a totalitarian regime who rules the hindering the societal progress. The face of Oceania is Big Brother, an omniscient figure who is widely worshiped by its people. The Inner Party enforces a new language known as Newspeak that prevents anyone from committing political rebellion. The control that this Party has over the entire population unveils the theme of the novel, that intimidation by a higher up can lead to psychological manipulation. There are several paradoxes within the text that reveal this theme to be true due to the party’s way with words. A paradox is something that contradicts reason or expectation and Orwell

    Read More

  • Outer Party Propaganda

    1872 Words  | 4 Pages

    We, the party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not” (Orwell 248). In a world where the party controls all records, Winston refuses to give up his belief in the immutability of human memory. Winston is a rarity, he isn't afraid to think for himself and question the world around him, and this frightens the party. As humans progress through the stages of life, it is rare for one to stop and look at the world around them.

    Read More

  • The Themes Of Individualism In George Orwell's 1984

    1560 Words  | 4 Pages

    Keeping the public uneducated essential to their credulousness. Orwell explains, “The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible . . . literally unthinkable,” (246). If the public is unable to think of rebellion, then rebellion is unfeasible. The Party has invaded every citizen 's right to choose, including their right to think. As the ability to think decreases, so does the ability to create. Without the invention of new ideas, society will never be able to advance; they will forever be stuck in the oppression

    Read More

  • Survival In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    Newspeak is an evolution of language by eliminating superfluous words and grammatical rules. The German Language underwent government changes in 2007, simplifying the language’s over complicated grammatical rules significantly (Blechman). German was an exceedingly hard language to learn, due to rules “deemed ambiguous and unsystematic” (Blechman). The number of convoluted grammatical rules was halved, and rules “governing commas dropped from 52 to a mere nine.” While these rules required a one-year period of adjustment, they resulted in an “easier” language, but also one with less ambiguity and more meaning.

    Read More

  • Comparing Orwell's Politics And Language

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    Just as evolution has taken place in animals over the decades and causing many species to arise. Language has also evolved and changed over the years to fit different means of society. I argue that nowadays modern English is vague and not really used effectively by not only individuals but also politicians. Language nowadays lacks meaning and imagery and instead consist of words and phrases that are attached together. In “Politics and Language” by George Orwell, he also argues that the language utilized by political parties is vague and incompetent language is used to remain abstract to the listener or reader.

    Read More

More about How Does George Orwell Use Language In 1984

Open Document