1984 The English Language

When infants first learn to speak, their vocabulary is very small. As they grow up, they learn more words and start to experience more complex emotions and thoughts. The vast number of terms that the growing infant learns enables them to cope and understand their environment as well as speak out against it if necessary. But imagine if we as humans never learn anything beyond the speech of an infant, even in old age. How limited will they be in their intellectual pursuits? How will they communicate with each other? How will that affect human imaginations? George Orwell is quite aware of the effect that words can have on people as demonstrated in 1984 and “Politics and the English Language”. Orwell knows that the most basic way to control people

When you limit language and writing, you limit the freedom and thought of the individual.

In 1984 Orwell uses the invention of Newspeak to try and crack down on thoughtcrime. By narrowing the language that the people speak, Big brother is limiting the people's ability to express and think for themselves. When Winston reads the instructions given for rewriting a news article, it reads: “times 3.12.83 reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling” (Orwell, 1984, 44). Newspeak literally trims down the english language. Order for the day becomes “dayorder”, extremely unsatisfactory becomes “doubleplusungood”, nonexistent persons becomes “unpersons” and etc. When words are removed and condensed together, this limits the words that people can use to describe their thoughts, feelings and the events going on around them. Newspeak forces people to talk and write about things in an extremely precise and juvenile manner and thus simplifies their minds. The message even has a mechanical feel, as though it’s being read by a robot. Compare the note in

In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it.’” (Orwell, 1984, 52). To break this down, thoughtcrime is when someone has illegal thoughts. Thoughts questioning the government, thoughts directly against the government. Even thoughts that demonstrate or encourage individuality, as that goes against the government's attempts to control how people think. So to “make thoughtcrime literally impossible” is to “narrow the range of thought”. To do this is to completely change how a person thinks. People will be trapped behind the prison bars of their limited knowledge. With that limited knowledge, people have no freedom and are unable to think or express