1984 George Orwell Manipulation Of Language
Manipulation of Language and Communication in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell, like many literary scholars, is greatly interested in the power of language when used as an instrument for manipulation of thought and establishing political domination. He believes that totalitarianism and the corruption of language are connected, and focuses on this idea in a number of his works, in the hopes of bringing public awareness to the government and media’s abuse of language to reshape truth. In his essay Politics and the English Language, he states, “If thoughts can corrupt language, language can also corrupt thoughts,” an idea which eventually manifested itself in Newspeak, and which reflects a fear that is equally alive today in both the realms of politics and advertising (NPR). Orwell proposes that language is of vital importance to …show more content…
Concerned as they are with maintaining complete and utter control over the citizens of Oceania, the Party is aware that as long as individuals have the ability to articulate thoughts, they are equipped with the best arsenal possible for fueling a rebellion. By means of propaganda, Newspeak, and altering history, Orwell demonstrates how language can be wielded as a political weapon in order to manipulate and dehumanize people, resulting in a society in which authority reigns unquestioned and propaganda is perceived as truth.
Since its publication in Nineteen Forty-Nine, Orwell’s final cautionary tale, Nineteen Eighty-Four, has become one of the world’s most influential works of literature, and has seen countless manifestations of the very fears which Orwell wrote about in the real world; In the year Nineteen Eighty-Four itself, the novel was banned all through the Soviet Union, a most eerie parallel. Orwell writes plainly yet vividly about a government which facilitates manipulation and deception, and its
George Orwell, like many literary scholars, is greatly interested in the power of language when used as an instrument for manipulation of thought and establishing political domination. He believes that totalitarianism and the corruption of language are connected, and focuses on this idea in a number of his works, in the hopes of bringing public awareness to the government and media’s abuse of language to reshape truth. In his essay Politics and the English Language, he states, “If thoughts can corrupt language, language can also corrupt thoughts,” an idea which eventually manifested itself in Newspeak, and which reflects a fear that is equally alive today in both the realms of politics and advertising (NPR). Orwell proposes that language is of vital importance to …show more content…
Concerned as they are with maintaining complete and utter control over the citizens of Oceania, the Party is aware that as long as individuals have the ability to articulate thoughts, they are equipped with the best arsenal possible for fueling a rebellion. By means of propaganda, Newspeak, and altering history, Orwell demonstrates how language can be wielded as a political weapon in order to manipulate and dehumanize people, resulting in a society in which authority reigns unquestioned and propaganda is perceived as truth.
Since its publication in Nineteen Forty-Nine, Orwell’s final cautionary tale, Nineteen Eighty-Four, has become one of the world’s most influential works of literature, and has seen countless manifestations of the very fears which Orwell wrote about in the real world; In the year Nineteen Eighty-Four itself, the novel was banned all through the Soviet Union, a most eerie parallel. Orwell writes plainly yet vividly about a government which facilitates manipulation and deception, and its