How Does Orwell Use Language In 1984

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Chantal Rodriguez Mr. O’Connor Modern World Literature 18 November 2014 Newspeak In 1984, the role of Newspeak plays a crucial role for the success of the Party. As the official language of Oceania, they use the continuously shrinking language to their advantage. Although it is not adopted completely into the society, it is beginning to dominate the minds of the people of Oceania. The whole aim of the language is to remove rebellious thoughts. Language is very important to a society. Without it, a society would have no other means of communication. Even though societies are made up of different cultures and people, but language is a key component. Orwell reveals the aim of Newspeak is to narrow and manipulate the thoughts of citizens to maintain…show more content…
They have two different languages circulating in the setting, Oldspeak and Newspeak. Oldspeak is the language that they used to learn like when the adults were children. When Syme and Winston were speaking about Newspeak and Oldspeak, Syme states, “By 2050, earlier probably – all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared.” (Orwell 52). Newspeak is now taking over but not only eliminating words but also narrowing down thoughts. With the elimination of words, people have less ways to think and express themselves. Language in their society is viewed as a simple tool but it is also very important to them. With the narrowing down people can refrain from being committed of thought crimes because they have fewer words in their vocabulary. Newspeak takes away the ability to express oneself passionately with words. With words like ‘doubleplusgood’, if something is enjoyable, the word ‘enjoyable’ will cease to exist. Newspeak is trying to control and narrow the thoughts of the citizens in order to maintain the Party’s absolute…show more content…
We naturally as human beings formulate and express our ideas and thoughts through speaking it in language. George Orwell in this novel is showing how important it is to speak your mind and to never let anything constrict you. He shows how frightening it is to be constricting language by creating Newspeak. In Newspeak, nothing is free. The words are so simple in that language that they is no way possible to even express or think about how you are feeling or ideas that you may have. The way that Newspeak is formulated conceptualizing ideas is physically impossible because they are no words to express
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