Politics and the English Language by George Orwell

The literary devices that is consistently used is connotation. The authors use of words such as; syntax(line 3), spring(line

George Orwell’s essay, Politics and the English Language, first published in 1946, talks about some “bad habits”, which have driven the English language in the wrong direction, that is, away from communicating ideas. In his essay he quotes five passages, each from a different author, which embody the faults he is talking about. He lists dying metaphors, operators, pretentious diction, and meaningless words as things to look out for in your own writing and the writing of others (593-595). He talks about political uses of the English language. Our language has become ugly and the ugliness impedes upon communication. Ugly uses of language have been reinforced and passed down in the population “even among people who should and do know

Political press can play such crucial role in the viewpoints of citizens; with an impact like this, it is essential to have explicit information. George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” he argues that Politicians have manipulated the English language, thus making their points euphemistic. He explains that these that, “...it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing” and results to a politician being “unconscious of what he is saying” (Orwell). Even though this essay was written in 1946, Orwell’s six basic rules are still broken. For instance, Donald Trump’s immigration speech is prime example of what Orwell would conclude as “nonsense”. The speech breaks the elementary rules by using unfamiliar phrases,

“Others among you, perhaps fewer in number, will say to yourselves: quite so, there is such a thing as Standard English, or purity of speech, or correctness of expression- something worth safeguarding and fostering; but how the devil is one to accomplish that under the prevailing conditions: in a democratic society full of minorities that have their own dialects or linguistic preferences, and in a world in which television, advertising, and other mass media manage daily to corrupt the language

A dystopian society is one with restricted freedom, whose values are worshipped by citizens who live in fear of surveillance or punishment. In 1984 by George Orwell, the protagonist lives in a futuristic world, controlled by big brother and the inner party over aspects of human life. In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, the fear of egalitarian policies, and the dangers of equality take over. In The Purge by James DeMonaco, the citizens relief to self-regulate violence and to protect themselves and their family from the protagonist. All dystopian literature shares similar characteristics, winston which is the protagonist in 1984, he lives in a society where the government takes over and tries to brainwash the citizens making them believe they live in a illusion of a perfect world. Winston is depicted and physically ill, but strong enough not to give in. “Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past.” (Orwell 12). George Bergeron is the protagonist in Harrison Bergeron, the government makes him wear a radio, which broadcasts noise over these radios to interrupt the thoughts of smart people like George. ‘’Screams and barking cries of consternation came from the television set’’ (Vonnegut 2). Sergeant was the protagonist in the purge, he risked his life by saving others life for a night of horror. The Purge, Harrison Bergeron, and 1984 were all based off government, society where there is limiting and controlling the population. ‘’We

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.”

Language is all around us, it is how we communicate with one another, it brings meaning to literature, and is cemented into our culture. Walt Whitman, a famous American novelist from the 19 century, highlights the effects of language on the American population in his essay, Slang in America. He focuses on positive aspect of slang, how we adapt slang into the english language, as if it is second nature to use, giving a deeper meaning to everyday phrases and words. By contrast, Politics and the English Language, by George Orwell, does not highlight the positive side to slang, instead looking at how authors have started to write with no purpose, no meaning in their texts. George Orwell, in Politics and the English Language, creates an connotation between ideas and an appeal to logos to convince the reader that writers have started to write meaningless pieces of work and could have potentially negative effects on the American people. Compared to Walt Whitman’s use of an unifying tone and an appeal to pathos in Slang in America, that highlights the positive effects of the English language on the American people.

“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.

Orwell describes verbal false limbs and pretentious diction as extra wording in an idea to make it sound nicer to the ear or sound more intelligent. A verbal false limb is the misuse of verbs and nouns to give a sentence more syllables, while pretentious diction is where foreign expressions or higher level words are chosen to enhance the sentence. These both negatively affect language and meaning because they do not make any idea more clear to the reader, they are only used to make them sound smarter, therefore even confusing some readers. Students definitely use these tactics in order to make the teacher think that they know what they are talking about when really they have no clue what is going on. If they sound smart, than the teacher

Actions speak louder than words. It is all too easy to proclaim your support for a cause of your passionate belief to an idea, but it reveals more about yourself when you take action to support that cause or belief. While people may be tied by social norms to say certain things or perhaps intending to deceive by their words, the choices they actually make do more to reveal their true self because actions require a real expenditure of effert and often requires a risk taking. George Orwell's 1984 and Robespierre's actions in the French Revolution show how the choices one makes can reveal more than socially required or deceitful words.

Have you ever thought you have been led to believe something? Or been shown something, maybe even on purpose, to change your opinion and feel scared to make you feel the need to be protected? In the novel 1984 by George Orwell this is exactly what the government did. Big Brother lied, contradicted himself and would hide reality from the people. All of this to make the people of Oceania would love their government and feel like their government created the best life possible to those people. Now,how is our government, the United States of America, related to this?

There is a lot of nations who unlikely to us count with Kings and Dictators. In England Queen Elizabeth II, has not much power over decision or passing laws for example, the prime minister and the parliament are in charge on this because there monarchy believes in constitution. On the other hand there is dictators like Fidel Castro who ruled Cuba for more than five decades, assigning his position to his brother Raul Castro. He became the only party who will rule Cuba, but the most famous one who made horror in history was Adolf Hitler. Close to this way of ruling a country is the novel 1984 by author George Orwell. On his book Orwell talks about the danger and possibilities of living under a regiment and how the basic rights and freedom can be taken away. Currently every single citizen in the United States count with rights and freedoms. This is called The Constitution of the United States that was signed on September 17, 1787 and presented by George Washington. Based on the Constitution there is articles and amendments missing in the novel 1984 and how those missing amendments and articles make our society free and democratic.

George Orwell’s thesis that words can and will be used as political tools is absolutely correct, because speech can be twisted and used as a weapon to obscure, change, or manipulate the true context or meaning behind a thought or action. George Orwell warned about the manipulation of language and the underlying fascism that was around during the time of his writing that was connected with language. During the time of his writing Adolf Hitler and Mussolini had both just fallen from power and Orwell warned about how they used language as a means of manipulation to obscure their true intentions.

The English language is not something that is complicated. It is just something that needs to be practiced to perfection. Over a long period of time, it has slowly become something that is hard for people to understand. It is just as difficult for people today as it would have been one hundred years ago. Orwell makes this extremely clear in Politics and the English Language. Even though this was written in 1946, there are many points and arguments that still have relevance today. One of his main arguments is that the reason that this language has had an extreme downfall is because of politics and economics. He argues that political language has become dull and somewhat useless. To clarify his argument, he uses writings from two professors and

George Orwell, like many other literary scholars, is interested in the modern use of the English language and, in particular, the abuse and misuse of English. He realizes that language has the power in politics to mask the truth and mislead the public, and he wishes to increase public awareness of this power. He accomplishes this by placing a great focus on "Newspeak" and the media in his novel "1984". Demonstrating the repeated abuse of language by the government and by the media in his novel, Orwell shows how language can be used politically to deceive and manipulate people, leading to a society in which the people unquestioningly obey their government and mindlessly accept all propaganda as reality. Language becomes a mind-control tool, with the ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination.