1984 by George Orwell is a dystopian novel that follows protagonist, Winston Smith, as he retells the past in his own point of view. This novel is set in a fictional country, known as Oceania, during the year 1984. This novel is told in the past tense and contains elements of figurative language, including hefty loads of foreshadowing. Dark and frustrated, the author utilizes this tone to illuminate the dystopian aspects of the book. Winston is a low-ranking member of society, which is under the rule of the Party.
George Orwell is the author of, “Politics and the English Language”, an article in which he attempts to persuade the reader to believe his claim that politics are influencing modern writing, in turn causing lazy and vague writing. Orwell says that, “Political language-...is designed to make lies sound truthful”(539). Essentially, his main point is that the habit of writing fancily for little reason, or with little purpose, is reversible with significant effort. Orwell’s goal is to get his readers to follow an “elementary” set of rules listed near the end of the article. He believes that there can be no good writers that do not follow the rules stated.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell talks about how privacy is scarce and how the government controls our lives in a totalitarian government. George Orwell in his novel, 1984, published in June 8, 1949 addresses the topic of what he thinks Oceania will look like in 1984, based on how things were back when he wrote it. Orwell's claim is supported in today's modern literature in the article “When Euphemism Disguises Truth: George Orwell’s Foresight” by Bernard A. Weisberger saying that when the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer and then later saying that the German, Russian and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last 10 or 15 years, as a result of dictatorship. The surveillance capabilities used by Big Brother were that “any sound that winston made above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover , so long as he remained within the field of vision of the metal plaque commanded he could be seen as well as heard.” As you can see, surveillance has been a big issue and there have been technologies used to spy.
Only Human? In the novel 1984, George Orwell utilizes figurative language as well as vivid diction to convey that totalitarian rule of a society will lead to dehumanization. The first time Winston sees the man sitting at the table across from him, he notices that “his spectacles caught the light and presented to [him] two blank discs instead of eyes” (55). Using a metaphor, Orwell compares the man’s eyes to “two blank discs,” bringing to mind the concept of emptiness, or a lack of emotion.
The first website article “George Orwell Biography” is written by the editors of Biography.com explains Orwell’s life with facts and dates. This website goes into detail on his early life, early career, his later works, and his personal life. I thought it was very interesting to read that Orwell knew how the rich people were treating the poor. I thought this was interesting because of in the first few chapters of his book 1984, it seemed like he had know idea of what life could be like and it didn’t seem like he knew how poorly the rich people were treating them.
The pen is mightier than the sword, but sometimes the pen is misused. In Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize Speech and George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, Morrison and Orwell have very different writing styles, but both write about a common issue. Both well-known authors use different techniques to express their views on what language has become. In Morrison’s speech, she uses figurative language to describe how language is oppressive. In Orwell’s essay, he uses a formal and straightforward tone to criticize modern political language.
Language: “The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall.” (2) “Day and night the telescreens bruised your ears with statistics proving that people today had more food, more clothes, better houses, better recreations... Not a word of it could be proved or disproved... It was like a single equation with two unknowns” (74) L(1) George Orwell, the author of 1984, uses figurative language within this quote with a perfectly crafted simile.
What is a hero? A hero is someone who has the ability to rise above challenges and is brave enough to sacrifice himself for others. In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, by definition, Winston Smith can be considered the novels hero. This is because of his strength and bravery to go against the party. While reader can admire Winston, they can over exceed his actions.
In 1667, when anyone submitted an idea to the Royal Society, Hooke was the scientist to contact in order to begin experiments on said idea. Therefore, Hooke was the most prominent member of Society because the Curator of Experiments was the spearhead of the experimental and developmental stages of ideas. The Royal Society during his tenure poured massive amounts of work on his plate, but he prevailed and even found the time to present experiments of his own deriving from other experiments he had performed. Hooke also was immensely busy and thus unable – or in some cases unwilling, pending a way of profiting from the enterprise via letters patent to develop all of his own ideas. This was a time of immense scientific progress, and numerous ideas were developed in several places simultaneously.
In 1984 George Orwell utilizes forceful verbs, words with negative connotation and figures of speech to create an anxious mood. Orwell’s use of evident verbs enforces the mood of anxiety. The verbs “gazed” (3), “hovered” (5), and “scrutinized” (4) all impose the mood of anxiety. The verb “gazed” (3) provokes the feeling of not only being watched but stared at. Orwell does this knowingly, causing a mood of anxiety towards readers because one does not feel at ease when being watched or “gazed” at.
Thesis: In the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, “Newspeak” and various other principles, are implemented by the Party in order to manipulate and diminish the people’s thoughts, so as to fulfill its own political agendas. The Party is able to diminish the people’s thoughts, as the Newspeak language only comprises of words that are relevant to particular concepts and subject areas that the Part approves of. Additionally these have been given only “one rigid definition” [Pg 53, Part I, Section V].
In, “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell tries to prove how language exist to communicate, and how the meanings of words can dissipate, which results in communication vanishing too. The author makes a list of linguistic rules that people should follow, which he intentionally breaks throughout his paper to mock the usages of poor grammar. Linguistically, ignorant people, do not understand the author’s use of irony. So, without the right lexical skills, difficulty communicating will exist. Language has changed throughout the years many different way and language trends seem to evaporate, as quickly as they appeared.
The English language constantly changes, whether the changes are substantial or small, nothing about the language itself is still. The structure and the continuous building of language are quite mesmerizing furthering one's curiosity about how exactly language can expand so far. One cannot argue that language is a major influence everywhere while simultaneously a powerful tool that can manipulate many. Depending on who the person is within the hectic world, language can either be one’s greatest asset or their worst enemy. In 1984, a novel written by George Orwell demonstrates the unquestionable sovereignty that language holds upon the masses, along with Saul Alinsky’s opinionated statement, “he who controls the language controls the masses.”
Along with this, Orwell openly portrays his anger revolving around the destruction of the English Language. In prior writings, Orwell displays his disgust at the evolution of language and his unhappiness in the migration of shorter, unexaggerated sentences to the lengthy wording of simple phrases. In Orwell's writing titled “Politics and the English Language,” he states “no modern writer of the kind I am discussing- no one capable of using phrases like “objective consideration of contemporary phenomena”- would ever tabulate his thoughts in that precise and detailed way,” a passage which thoroughly depicts Orwells contempt of modern writers. By incorporating Old English language into his writings, Orwell subtly displays his unrest with the modernization of our language.
George Orwell has left a lasting impression on the lives of his audience despite only living for forty-six years. Known for his politically critical novels, Orwell’s material is proven relevant, even today, to explain situations pertaining to society or to government. However, the question of how Orwell understood totalitarianism to the extent that he did remains. On June 25, 1903, this Anglo-French writer, originally named Eric Arthur Blair, was born in Motihari, India, to Richard Blair and Ida Limouzin. At a young age, Orwell was sent to a convent run by French nuns, where his hatred of Catholicism was established.
