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1984 By George Orwell

626 Words3 Pages

George Orwell’s 1984 explores the idea that controlling one’s language leads to controlling one’s thoughts. He demonstrates this through the use of Big Brother, the leader of the totalitarian regime of Oceania. Big Brother controls all aspects of life in Oceania, including language. Many terms, including “ungood” or "unperson," display Big Brother’s control over language. These Newspeak terms limit the variability and complexity of thought and therefore allow Big Brother to control thought via the manipulation of speech. Overall, Orwell illustrates how manipulating and limiting one’s language can also manipulate and limit their ability to think independently. Newspeak, the language used by all citizens of Oceania, is Big Brother and his regime’s …show more content…

According to Syme, a worker for The Ministry of Truth, “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.” (Page 52) Through this quote, Syme explains that by limiting the capability of one to express their feelings via words, they simply won't be able to think for themselves. If they can’t think independently, "thoughtcrime," or thinking against the party, becomes impossible, as one cannot think against a government when they simply don’t have the means to do so. Examples of Newspeak include “ungood” (Page 51). These simple terms display Big Brother’s objective of eliminating unnecessary words and complexity. They do so by using prefixes, in this example, “un,” instead of just saying “bad”. Overall, limiting the complexity of Oceania’s language increases the difficulty for people to think and express themselves critically. Although in today's world, we don't live in such extreme totalitarianism, there are many examples of limiting speech and thought. For instance, political

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Newspeak is slowly creeping its way into the public, and will soon extinguish any word that could transform into a thoughtcrime. Newspeak is quite simple in the scheme of things, its goals are to obliterate any sort of negative thoughts towards the government. “ Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts—the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language. Newspeak contains no negative terms.” ( sparknotes).

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It is obvious that the government is the biggest thing in the book “1984” and how much the government controls the population is astounding. Although there are many obvious ways that Big Brother controls the population, “Newspeak” is probably one of the worst, if not the worst and most intense control mechanism. With “Newspeak” not only is what people say controlled, but it is also restricted, it is made so that the language used is modified and people cannot say certain things even if they wanted to. “Newspeak” is a way in which the government in Oceania controls what the people say and believe. Big brother is the ruler of Oceania, and while it might not directly be said that he is a dictator, it is very much obvious that everything that

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In 1984 by George Orwell, all of the citizens in Oceania are always being watched and have no perception of the outside world. They are being controlled by “Big Brother” who is the government. The citizens cannot think of anything negative because the government does not want them to find out that they are being mistreated, and then rebel. Since they are not aware of any negative words, they speak in this language called Newspeak. This all correlates with the Anti-Federalists because they believe a federal government will turn into a government like Big Brother.

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1984 Analysis George Orwell’s 1984 has significant relevance to today’s society because of the abuse of power over the people by the government. Although most governments today don’t watch their citizen’s every move, or torture them into believing that two plus two could equal five and/or three, that might not be too far in the future. There are several symbol of the Party’s complete control over the free life, language, and emotions of the citizens. Body 1: To begin, the Party has significant power over the people, even to go as far arresting them for “thoughtcrime” which is when you think of things that are considered illegal by the Party. The free life of the people of Oceania was not actually free, or the people’s.

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It is no accident that the Founding Fathers of America made the First Amendment to the US Constitution to embody the idea that a free citizenry must have the right to express themselves freely. Freedom of speech and freedom of thought go hand-in-hand. Therefore, it is also no accident that in George Orwell’s 1984 novel, the government of Oceania created “Newspeak,” a government-mandated language aimed at curbing unsanctioned thoughts. In 1984, the political party uses this newly developed language to subliminally coerce civilians into submission and completely eradicate any chance of rebellion within the state.

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Newspeak was the official language of Oceania. The government in 1984 created Newspeak to eliminate words that the government thought was unnecessary, such as the word “bad.” The government used Newspeak to their advantage by easily corrupting the thoughts of the people in Oceania, even though they already completely control them. By reducing words and eliminating Oldspeak they can eventually dumb their society down, making it impossible for the people to think on their own. The government is weakening the independence of the people’s individual minds and forcing them to live in constant fear, so they are forced to accept anything the Party tells them to.

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To begin with, we see that with control, governments can mold citizens into their ideal form. In George Orwell’s 1984, the government creates a new language in order to narrow the range of thought; you cannot go against the government using words that don't exist. According to 1984, “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.”

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In 1984, Gorge Orwell explores propaganda, revealing how easily society is influenced when people are bombarded with information. Orwell uses irony to reveal how the citizens of Oceania are easily brainwashed by political figures to think they are free when they really are not. One of the Party’s most common slogans is, “War is peace; Freedom is slavery; Ignorance is Strength” (Orwell 26). The government of Oceania controls the citizens through many forms of propaganda, such as this slogan. They put it all over their country so that they can control their citizens and make them believe that they are free.

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Both George Orwell's novel 1984 and William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, language plays a significant role in controlling and manipulating people. It serves as a powerful tool used by those in authority to shape perceptions, suppress dissent, and maintain control over individuals and society as a whole. In both the novel and play there were different ways language was used and both had different effects but there was one thing that was constant: the drama that is caused by it. In 1984, the Party exploits language through the concept of Newspeak, a restricted language designed to limit the range of thought.

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Newspeak is a language that was designed to limit the ways people are allowed to express themselves through speech and writing. Orwell believes there are flaws in the English language, highlighted by the use of Newspeak in 1984 (Fowler). One flaw that Orwell sees is the use of “ready-made phrases, which is of immediate relevance to Nineteen Eighty-Four” (Fowler). Ready-made phrases are expressions that take the place of logical and well-constructed thought. The Party’s aim is to keep people from forming a logical reasoning to resist their reign and Newspeak takes advantage of ready-made phrases to make sure people use a diction that has no relevance to the subject at hand.

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In Orwell’s story, the state is ruled by a powerful entity known as Big Brother. He appeared in the story through posters containing a phrase that says “Big Brother is watching you” which in fact is deemed to be true through the use of telescreens which are installed across the whole country of Oceania. Big Brother puts his trust in the Ministry of Truth for making sure that every citizen would blindly comply with his rules. The Ministry of Truth itself ironically is responsible for laying out well-constructed propagandas and implementing Newspeak to its constituents. The Party believes that language can be used to manipulate the state, thus Newspeak was born.

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In 1984, Orwell paints a nightmarish picture of a totalitarian system gone to the absolute extreme. He believed that totalitarianism and the corruption of language were connected and he integrated it into the novel by using language as the ultimate weapon of destruction. Big Brother uses the power of language to oppress, persuade and control the people of Oceania. The official language of Oceania is Newspeak, which the party use to control its subjects and outlaw subversive thoughts.

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Nineteen eighty-four is a highly constructed dramatic experience which effectively delineates totalitarianism and controlling governments within Oceania, revealed through its respectable language. The language used by Orwell critics how the dystopian land of Oceania was during the time of the cold war. Within the last paragraph of 1984, Orwell effectively depicts the dystopian world of Oceania and shows that through the extreme control of human nature by using INGSOC’s, the representation of big brother and the act of dehumanisation, portraying that the government is purely a one sided and controlling government. Through Orwell 's use of techniques, he prompts the reader to question the ideals totalitarianism and government control. Thus, the audience is informed that the totalitarian government has a vast amount of capabilities, that can be used ultimately to control the minds of individuals in 1984.

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