George Orwell's 1984-Language Dominates Society

Absolute control over society is the central theme in the novel, 1984, by George Orwell. One method this power over society is exercised is use of language to manipulate and control people. The story features a society called Oceania, which is located in the European region. In Oceania, there is a form of totalitarian government called the Party which controls the entire society. The Party controls thoughts by making certain words or phrases illegal. In addition, any anti-party thoughts or motives are also deemed illegal. To control society, thoughts are monitored by telescreens which read reactions and record speech. A force, called the Thought Police, is also engaged to take power over and eliminate society’s individual beliefs. The

In this excerpt from 1984, by George Orwell, Winston Smith, a worker for the ministry of truth, has been caught for committing a thought crime and is being taken to room 101 for punishment. During the passage, Smith desperately tries to escape his punishment. Through the use of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, and details, the tone of urgency is revealed

Throughout the story, you see the way that the pig, Squealer, gives information to the “lowly” animals. He tells them what the leading pig, Napoleon, wants them to know, but he tells it in a way that it seems they are benefitting. Squealer had a way of persuading the other animals to listen to him, through his actions and manipulation. “The best known among them was a small, fat pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black to white.”

1984 is a constant argument in today's society. There is a constant debate whether or not 1984 is similar in the 21st century, there are many reasons this topic is debated today. Although many people believe the book 1984 is not similar to the 21st century, a reading of Orwell’s novel demonstrates that in America today, the United States government is just as intrusive, the upper class citizens have more benefits, and newspeak is hastening the degradation of the English language just as the author foresaw.

“Newspeak was designed to. . .diminish the range of thought. . .by cutting the choice of words down to a minimum” explains George Orwell, the author of a dystopian fiction novel, 1984 (Orwell 300). Orwell designs a society in which a totalitarian government rules, depriving people of their thoughts. The story gives us a look into the life of the main character, Winston, who seems to face issues with reality control. Today, we will delve into the depths of this novel and explore Orwell’s views on the nature of language. In simple terms, Orwell suggests that language, if used in a certain way, has the ability to influence people and compel them to alter their thoughts. With this statement and supporting evidence, it can be concluded that the effective use of language can give individuals power to modify or reshape opinions that will allow for change in society.

In 1984, George Orwell uses cultural, psychological, and social surroundings to shape Winston Smith's (the main protagonist) psyche. The society's culture is restrictive, the government brainwashes people and children into following the government's rule, and his social encounters, especially with his girlfriend Julia, shape his morality.

The want to communicate with others is instinctual to all animals; communication is necessary to survive. As infants, humans coo, gurgle, and cry to communicate their immediate needs to their providers. However, the provider does not exactly know what their child needs, due to the child’s inability to explain their distress through words. As the child develops and learns to speak, this communication barrier is broken. Words, even in their most pure and basic form, are used for the sole purpose of expression. However, expressing oneself can have many goals and outcomes. In his treatise Rhetoric, Aristotle writes about using words to express one’s self for the sole purpose of persuading an audience. In his novel, 1984, George Orwell uses the

In the totalitarian society of Oceania, people are controlled in every possible way. Big Brother, the main leader, constantly uses persuasion and language to maintain power over the people. Newspeak, the language of the state, uses incomprehensible words to keep the thought of rebellion and freedom out of the minds of the people. For example, they remove all of the alternative words for things so that there is only one word you can use for each situation. This makes innovative thinking impossible, because people can't imagine anything different from what they know, so they are less likely to rebel. Thinking against the party is called 'thoughtcrimes’; the aim of the party is to eventually acquire complete control over people's thoughts so that

Throughout Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell goes into great detail of the gruesome physical and emotional tortures that the brutal Big Brother Party commonly practices. However, Orwell maintains that because it can be imposed onto the mass majority without causing immense suspicion or fear, the psychological manipulation of language is the Party's greatest strength. By emphasizing the manipulative connotations and restrictions of Newspeak, Orwell demonstrates the deep influence that language has on the public’s minds and memories. Orwell creates the totalitarian government of Oceania along with the omniscient Big Brother Party that watches over everybody at all times. In this society, the Party controls everyone and everything with the

Literary devices are tools used in literature to emphasize important points, generate interest, and convey the voice of a writer in a written work. Often, they aid readers to feel like they are part of the story, it creates images in the head/ mind of the reader, they can also cause time to disappear, they may draw one into a story, thus it can create the world in one’s vision. George Orwell used figurative language in the 1984 novel very elegantly well, for instance, Personification- "If the Party could force its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened—that, surely, was more horrifying than mere torment and death" Orwell made usage of personification to give the story life, he gave the party life by saying it can shove

"To say 'I accept' in an age like our own is to say that you accept concentration-camps, rubber truncheons, Hitler, Stalin, bombs, aeroplanes, tinned food, machine guns, putsches, purges, slogans, Bedaux belts, gas-masks, submarines, spies, provocateurs, press-censorship, secret prisons, aspirins, Hollywood films and political murder" (Bookshelf I).

As an author, George Orwell is concerned with the modern use and misuse of the English language. He notes the recognized ability of language to distort truth and deceive masses in his essay "Politics and the English Language", and attempts to alert the public of this power in his novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four . Depicting dystopia of a totalitarian system at a complete extreme, Orwelll's novel is essentially about psychological control of the public. In the creation of "Newspeak", Orwell portrays the effects of recurring abuse of language by government, and demonstrates how language can be used politically to manipulate minds on a monumental scale, eventually birthing a society in

In 1984 by George Orwell, the idea of the book was intended to be fiction. However, there are characteristics throughout the novel that are seen in today’s society. These characteristics are the endless war, the surveillance state, the double thinking, and the placated proles.

I think ‘the abuse of language’ is the main theme of the novel because Party uses language to control mind of the citizens, that is the biggest propaganda represented in the novel. Orwell appears this theme also in another masterpiece ‘Animal Farm’ when pigs manipulate on the other animals saying ‘All animals are equal but some are more equal than the others’; ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ or how Squealer covers every failure of the pigs and makes it look like a success. It is the same with 1984, when O’Brian stays loyal to the Party and collaborates with it. The biggest manipulation they made is by language. All propaganda is covered and every bad intention of the Party is seen as a good one in front of the citizens. In 1984 Orwell introduces a nasty game of the Party. Party ‘forced’ its citizens (through different kinds of manipulation) to learn that ‘Slavery is freedom’; ‘War is peace’; ‘Ignorance is strength’. This represents the abuse of language, it is called

Hopelessness, deep and gaping ever lasting hopelessness. If the course of humanity fails to change, to this everyone will succumb. That is the message that George Orwell has left for the future, and it would be in humanity's best interest to heed. Winston Smith of 1984 lived in a world that had been consumed by the everlasting abyss of injustice. Eventually this world became too much for our hopeful protagonist and thus, like the future that is bound to a horrific fate, he succumbed. “It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it” (Orwell 248). No one in this world is any different than Winston, they will follow his path like all of those before them, following the five stages of Kübler-Ross. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance make up the cycle that every feeble life will follow and that Winston grew to know all too well.