1984 By George Orwell

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

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