John Ruskin's Unspoken Words

In George Orwell's "1984" society is manipulated and guided by an organization called the Party and an anonymous figure named Big Brother, who is used as God. One of the main aspects the Party controls is truth or tries to control is truths in the society and the truth in the minds of the individual themselves. The Party creates what they want to be true to make the individuals ignorant so they can manipulate them easier. This twist of the truth by the Party makes it seem like truth doesn't actually exist, but for Winston it does exist or it once did. Truth does exist if the individual is rebellious to the extent to where it will not get them vaporized and Winston is one of those rebels. He and others are able to experience

Imagine yourself in the following situation: You sign up for a psychology experiment, on a specific date at a given time. You believe you are partaking in the experiment with fifteen other participants, however they have been given specified scripts that have been written out for them prior to the experiment. You are the only real participant. The experimenter arrives and begins to ask a series of true or false questions that aren't particularly hard. People begin to raise their hand for the inaccurate answers.

In Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, the many councils of their city strive to have complete control over the citizens. To do this, they create restrictive rules including that it is forbidden to think anything nobody else thinks, no one can refer to themselves as “I, me, or mine”, and people cannot write or read unless given permission. These rules must be followed automatically and if they’re not, punishment will occur. The magnitude and potency of rules in the city of Anthem exist to sustain full control of members of the society, most of which the main character, Equality, does not agree with.

Free thinking allows society to prosper. In Hillsboro free thought is considered a criminal offense, and can cause high tensions. This tension can cause people who were once neighborly and civil, to turn on each other. While Brady holds a religious meeting, he speaks harshly of cates, and the people of the town are quick to agree. “ pointing a finger towards the jail. Do we curse the man who denies the word? All yes!” (Lawrence page 65)

Serving as one the most controversial leaders of the Soviet Union during its relatively short existence, Nikita Sergeyevich Khruschev proved to be a leader capable of transforming a nation. Through his many alterations to the systems by which the Soviets lived, he managed to increase the standard of living and productivity of this Communist State. Described as a man of enormous energy and drive, he was shrewd, tough, earthy, sociable and talkative, and he confidently took colossal gambles in both foreign and domestic policies. From his "Secret Speech" and the following De-Stalinization of the Union, to the friendly relations with other countries of the world, his goal to remodel the Soviet Union into an

“Don 't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it” In 1984 every thought is considered a threat towards the party.

Relationship between thought and language is not something you consider or contemplate in your everyday life. Nevertheless, the answer to this seemingly useless philosophical question might spell the difference between totalitarian control of our minds achieved through manipulation of language and a world of freedom, where human ideas cannot be subjected to blatant perversions as they resonate through intelligent minds, bound only by the power of our imagination. This dilemma has captivated my attention ever since I read Orwell’s “1984” as well as his “Politics and English Language.” In both pieces, Orwell implies a direct correlation between the two notions and paints a horrifying picture of disastrous consequences that a language manipulation can usher in. Orwell’s claim that “if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought” clashed with my own perception of those concepts somewhere deep on a subconscious level. “Language could not possibly alter a thought,” I thought, “How could it? After all, language merely describes my thoughts, whereas thoughts are generally spontaneous ideas, sounds, pictures that flash though my mind’s eye, sometimes so fast, that I fail to grasp them before they fleet away.” Even though in his article Orwell was referring specifically to bad practices that are common in the use of language, the question persisted. Can a language influence thinking in the same manner as thinking influences the words being uttered or does it have

For example, when Winston sits down to write in his dairy, he writes “in sheer panic, only perfectly aware of what he was setting down” (Orwell, 11). In this instance, Winston is afraid of the act of writing in a dairy, but he decides to do so in sheer panic. This results as the effect of Oceania’s Party psychological manipulation of the mind. Every time a person decides to do something, they will have a sheer image of the poster and the caption “Big Brother Is Watching You” in the back of their heads. Hence, this action limits the person capability to act freely and express their inner sentiments. (Critical Reception, 11-23)

Big Brother is able to control the minds of the Oceanian people so that there are no corrupt thoughts. Syme says to Winston, “[d]on’t you see the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought, in the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible” (Orwell 46). In order for Big Brother to stay in power, it is essential to limit the people’s ability to consciously make bad choices. This sense of being compliant and obeying every rule made by Big Brother is made successful because of his ability to limit the thoughts of the people through Newspeak. The rebellious protagonist of 1984, Winston, falls to Big Brother because of his manipulation. “The purpose, then, of totalitarian government becomes only that of sustaining its feeling of power. Winston’s final defeat is encapsulated in the last words of the novel... [H]is struggle is finished: “He loved Big Brother” (Franks). This poignant end for Winston proves that Big Brother can successfully control the mind of almost anyone, obtaining complete obedience and loyalty. Kim Il Sung was able to achieve this same manipulation in a much different way. The people of North Korea see Kim Il Sung as a brother. He was successful during his time manipulating the minds of his people to sincerely believe that he is a member of every individual North Korean person’s family. The North Koreans see Kim Il Sung as someone they can trust, so they refrain from ever being disloyal to

Saying anything that comes into our minds no matter the circumstances could and would cause chaos. Many of us use our common sense to keep things to ourselves that may be offensive, or dangerous in the current situation we find ourselves in. Although freedom of speech doesn’t protect us from punishments not given by the government or affiliated agencies, it does protect against being arrested for saying something or writing something. The government has put limitations on what we can say or write. This includes slander, which is a false spoken statement that can hurt someone’s reputation or

Although there is no punishment by the government due to the protection of the first amendment Lovett brings up the idea that “the personal, financial, and social costs of saying the unsayable are prohibitively high”(Lovett 31-32), bringing up the point that if a controversial topic is brought up there are almost always negative consequences to come with the discussion. He uses himself as an example in the article saying that most of the time people do not care what he has to say, but because sometimes things he does say create controversy, that it holds him back in his writing or speeches.

Since without language thought is nearly impossible the party believes that by altering the language they can impose their untrue reality. They will be able to restrict it to the point that even a person’s thoughts are manipulated; things such as individualism and imagination will cease to exist. Which ultimately will give the Party total control over society. The newspeak engineer also goes on to state “ In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it.” (55) This quote proves how vital control of language is to the party, it is the key to becoming a controlled state. By creating the element of Newspeak in 1984 Orwell is warning against the potential consequences of manipulating language to benefit people in power and how this can eventually lead to a totalitarian state.

In the novel 1984, written by George Orwell, “Big Brother” is the face of the party in control of the dystopian society of Oceania. Big Brother plays the role of what might be considered the most important character in the novel; without this character, the government would have much less control over the public. It is because of Big Brother that Winston and Julia get themselves a private apartment, and it is also because of Big Brother that they get caught later in the novel. He is shown to be “larger than life” as Winston Smith is told that Big Brother exists as the embodiment of the party, and can never die. In a sense, Big Brother symbolizes the party

“Good citizens know they’re accountable for their actions (someone has said, “My right to swing my arm ends when my fist hits your nose.”)  There are those, however, who tend to forget that they also are held accountable for their words.  That’s how laws against libel and slander are sustained.” (Zonder)  There is no way to determine what will be offensive to one person, but not the next.  “For example, many African- Americans view the American classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as and example of hate speech.” (Wolfson)  Words can be very powerful.  If it is offensive, don’t read it or listen to it.  It is as simple as that.

Though Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" was written in a different country at a different time, it portrays a timeless theme; greed is a crippling trait of mankind. This message can be seen through the author's use of characterization of both the lawyer and the banker. The banker was a static character; he was greedy from start to finish. The lawyer was a dynamic character and he saw the wrong in his ways and changed them in the end.