1984 Newspek Language Essay
Linguistic Brainwashing: Newspeak and Its Subjects
Each language provides a worldview or the “reality of the world” for the people who speak it. It carries the consciousness of people using it and the ideologies employed to explain how lives should be lived. George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel which explores the world if individualism were nonexistent and wars and violence were the norm. These characteristics of a “totally imperfect world” were mainly illustrated through violence and the regulation of the Newspeak language.
1. Historical Background of the Text
Before the First World War, the ideas of the Enlightenment prevailed in the socialist movements in Europe. However, as people witnessed the death of millions under the illusion …show more content…
of peace during the First and Second World Wars such as the use of the atomic bombs against Japan, the mood shifted from the Western tradition of hope to despair (Fromm 315-316). Orwell’s 1984 is precisely one of the books that raised the awareness of the people about the despair growing in their consciousness before totally manifesting itself in a form of a more devastating violence.
During the Second World War, citizens had little freedom and hunger, forced labor, and mass execution were common. Mass executions occurred under the delusion of creating a “purer society” under the “will of God.” Orwell witnessed these horrors of the Second World War and served even for the Spanish Civil War during the authoritarian rule of Franco (Bowker 216).
The politics of Oceania in 1984 mirrors the tyrannies Orwell had witnessed in his lifetime, Nazism and Stalinism, wherein there is an absolute governmental control of daily human life and disobedience to the powerful means vanishing for good. In 1984, Orwell showcases how freethinking spontaneously evaporates under such circumstances, particularly through language.
2. Newspeak, Oceania and Thought
Language is a medium in which ideology is propagated. Moreover, it serves as a tool through which ideology works “to make a new reality, to instill beliefs or worldviews in subjects, and to impose frameworks on one’s apprehension of the world” (Frazer and Cameron 26). Language is the practical way in which humans make sense of reality. According to Marx’s model, language develops from the response of humans to their problems in material life, and is essentially social (Holborow 16).
Based on the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, people’s perceptions of the world are determined by language. One version of the hypothesis proposes that people think only in the means of their language. Another version claims that language can have some effect on thought (Parkins 254). The case depicted in 1984 is an imagined example of the former.
Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novel, embodies the assumptions of Orwell about man’s nature – rational, individual and has a constant desire to define reality. The novel explores the effect of totalitarianism on individual human consciousness especially though the use of language. Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, was devised to suffice the ideological needs of Ingsoc or English socialism. However, this was not the only purpose of the language. It was made to prevent people from thinking in other ways other than that of the Ingsoc’s way. This control of language is made parallel to the control of the consciousness of the members of the Party.
The Party devised three ways in order to limit the consciousness of people and subdue the people. The first way is the reduction of words which would then deprive the party members of ideas that contradict the principles of Ingsoc such as liberty and freedom. This definite control of the words in the language was shown when Winston was talking to Syme, who works for the continuous rewriting of the Newspeak dictionary.
“The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition,” he said.
“We’re getting the language into its final shape—the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we’ve finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words—scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won’t contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.” (53)
Apart from the reduction of the number of words, the suppression of Oldspeak terms employed by the Party also aimed to strip words of meanings and concepts against the Party-endorsed principles. For instance, the word free in Newspeak could not be used to indicate political or intellectual freedom as the word only means the “absence of” as in “a dog is free from lice.” The second method employed by the Party is the distorting the link between the words (signifier) and the concepts they denote (signified) (Saussure, 1916-1959). Due to the exercise of doublethink, people have accepted contradictiory statements to be natural, for instance the Ingsoc slogan: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Through the alteration of the signifieds of a signifier, the Party was able to effectively propagate their political …show more content…
motives. Aside from the purpose of illustrating the failure of communication using Newspeak, the term doublethink could have been also used by Orwell to criticize the use of “free world” to refer to any state except the communist Soviet and China while including states under dictatorship such as in South America and authoritarian rule such as in Spain, during that time. This indicates the “other-ing” occurring during his time frame, still prominent in the present, wherein Western Europe is shown to be the “free” part of Europe since it is democratic and communist states such as China and the former Soviet Union is shown to be the “other.”
Finally, by coining new words for their ideological needs, the Party added a new way to suppress the use of the Oldspeak terms especially dwelling on individualism in order to promulgate the goal of the Party—complete population brainwashing. These new terminologies include facecrime, thoughtcrime and doublethink. These words help in the conditioning of the people’s mind to be manipulated.
Consciousness and humanity is embedded in language. It is something that gives someone a sense of self. In 1984, however, the sense of self is designed to be annihilated by the Party as Newspeak is being developed. Syme explains this to Winston:
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?
In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Ever concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not far from that point. But the process will be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there’s no reason or excuse for committing thought-crime. It’s the merely a question of self-discipline, reality control. But in the end there won’t be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.”
… The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. (53-54) Through the unconsciousness of the Party members, the government of Oceania ensures that each person adapts to the new culture through the use of both linguistic and non-linguistic methods. Culture, in Oceania’s case, is the conventions imposed by the principles of
Ingsoc.
One of the nonlinguistic methods imposed by the Party is the denial of one’s rationality and reality. In the novel, it was necessary to think that life was excellent not just remaining passive. Towards the end of the novel, this was shown as Winston accepted the reality happening around him by believing that Big Brother was a figure to be loved and “two plus two is equal to five.”
Another method employed was the creation of institutions that will manage the people. The popular institutions in Oceania were set up in order to foster hatred, and repression of potentially disruptive practices. Some examples are the Junior Anti-Sex League (which aimed in killing the sex instinct) and the Spies (which induced children to blindly love Big Brother and his principles). Events such as the “Two Minutes of Hate” were established in order to condition people in the pro-Ingsoc ideals. Moreover, the Party established ministries that rewrite and falsify history.
It has been said that the history of a society greatly defines its cultural identity. In the case of Oceania, however, the Party reformulates past documents in order to feed the members with unnoticeable lies that will continue the self-deception process and hence propagate the Ingsoc ideology and maintain Big Brother’s power.
Winston, the main character in 1984, embodies rationality, individualism and reality. In the end of the novel, however, he becomes an ordinary Oceania citizen, blindly following Big Brother. This is to say that the Party is always in control in Oceania. History, social institutions and even present reality are subjects to the dictatorial will of Big Brother. The manipulation of the consciousness of the citizens of Oceania using the newly invented Newspeak goes hand-in-hand with the totalitarian rule and control of the cultural conventions in Oceania. Everything is subject to control of the Party as such “two plus two is equal to five” becomes a valid statement for the Oceania citizens.
3. Conclusion
To best way to control a population is to control the minds of the population for people who blindly follow things are the easiest to manipulate. The best tool which could be used to propagate the absolute control of the population is language. Languages carry the consciousness of its people. In the case of Oceania, however, consciousness is diminished by the use of language.
Orwell showcases Newspeak in order to show the kind of world wherein individuality has become archaic and personality is a crime. Through the use of Newspeak, Orwell as also emphasized the relationship between language, thought and culture. The parallels between language and societal changes were shown in 1984 through the experiences of Winston and his desire to have the freedom of saying that “two plus two is equal to four.” It further elaborates that the imposition of a language is related with certain power structures which want to promulgate a certain ideology and or promote propaganda. The end of the novel stresses the power of the Party in 1984 and the death of rationality as Winston succumbs to the Ingsoc belief that “two plus two is equal to five.” This highlights the effects of absolute totalitarianism on individual consciousness as Orwell wanted to show, as a warning for the generations to come from his experiences during his lifetime.
Each language provides a worldview or the “reality of the world” for the people who speak it. It carries the consciousness of people using it and the ideologies employed to explain how lives should be lived. George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel which explores the world if individualism were nonexistent and wars and violence were the norm. These characteristics of a “totally imperfect world” were mainly illustrated through violence and the regulation of the Newspeak language.
1. Historical Background of the Text
Before the First World War, the ideas of the Enlightenment prevailed in the socialist movements in Europe. However, as people witnessed the death of millions under the illusion …show more content…
of peace during the First and Second World Wars such as the use of the atomic bombs against Japan, the mood shifted from the Western tradition of hope to despair (Fromm 315-316). Orwell’s 1984 is precisely one of the books that raised the awareness of the people about the despair growing in their consciousness before totally manifesting itself in a form of a more devastating violence.
During the Second World War, citizens had little freedom and hunger, forced labor, and mass execution were common. Mass executions occurred under the delusion of creating a “purer society” under the “will of God.” Orwell witnessed these horrors of the Second World War and served even for the Spanish Civil War during the authoritarian rule of Franco (Bowker 216).
The politics of Oceania in 1984 mirrors the tyrannies Orwell had witnessed in his lifetime, Nazism and Stalinism, wherein there is an absolute governmental control of daily human life and disobedience to the powerful means vanishing for good. In 1984, Orwell showcases how freethinking spontaneously evaporates under such circumstances, particularly through language.
2. Newspeak, Oceania and Thought
Language is a medium in which ideology is propagated. Moreover, it serves as a tool through which ideology works “to make a new reality, to instill beliefs or worldviews in subjects, and to impose frameworks on one’s apprehension of the world” (Frazer and Cameron 26). Language is the practical way in which humans make sense of reality. According to Marx’s model, language develops from the response of humans to their problems in material life, and is essentially social (Holborow 16).
Based on the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, people’s perceptions of the world are determined by language. One version of the hypothesis proposes that people think only in the means of their language. Another version claims that language can have some effect on thought (Parkins 254). The case depicted in 1984 is an imagined example of the former.
Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novel, embodies the assumptions of Orwell about man’s nature – rational, individual and has a constant desire to define reality. The novel explores the effect of totalitarianism on individual human consciousness especially though the use of language. Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, was devised to suffice the ideological needs of Ingsoc or English socialism. However, this was not the only purpose of the language. It was made to prevent people from thinking in other ways other than that of the Ingsoc’s way. This control of language is made parallel to the control of the consciousness of the members of the Party.
The Party devised three ways in order to limit the consciousness of people and subdue the people. The first way is the reduction of words which would then deprive the party members of ideas that contradict the principles of Ingsoc such as liberty and freedom. This definite control of the words in the language was shown when Winston was talking to Syme, who works for the continuous rewriting of the Newspeak dictionary.
“The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition,” he said.
“We’re getting the language into its final shape—the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we’ve finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words—scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won’t contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.” (53)
Apart from the reduction of the number of words, the suppression of Oldspeak terms employed by the Party also aimed to strip words of meanings and concepts against the Party-endorsed principles. For instance, the word free in Newspeak could not be used to indicate political or intellectual freedom as the word only means the “absence of” as in “a dog is free from lice.” The second method employed by the Party is the distorting the link between the words (signifier) and the concepts they denote (signified) (Saussure, 1916-1959). Due to the exercise of doublethink, people have accepted contradictiory statements to be natural, for instance the Ingsoc slogan: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Through the alteration of the signifieds of a signifier, the Party was able to effectively propagate their political …show more content…
motives. Aside from the purpose of illustrating the failure of communication using Newspeak, the term doublethink could have been also used by Orwell to criticize the use of “free world” to refer to any state except the communist Soviet and China while including states under dictatorship such as in South America and authoritarian rule such as in Spain, during that time. This indicates the “other-ing” occurring during his time frame, still prominent in the present, wherein Western Europe is shown to be the “free” part of Europe since it is democratic and communist states such as China and the former Soviet Union is shown to be the “other.”
Finally, by coining new words for their ideological needs, the Party added a new way to suppress the use of the Oldspeak terms especially dwelling on individualism in order to promulgate the goal of the Party—complete population brainwashing. These new terminologies include facecrime, thoughtcrime and doublethink. These words help in the conditioning of the people’s mind to be manipulated.
Consciousness and humanity is embedded in language. It is something that gives someone a sense of self. In 1984, however, the sense of self is designed to be annihilated by the Party as Newspeak is being developed. Syme explains this to Winston:
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?
In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Ever concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not far from that point. But the process will be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there’s no reason or excuse for committing thought-crime. It’s the merely a question of self-discipline, reality control. But in the end there won’t be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.”
… The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. (53-54) Through the unconsciousness of the Party members, the government of Oceania ensures that each person adapts to the new culture through the use of both linguistic and non-linguistic methods. Culture, in Oceania’s case, is the conventions imposed by the principles of
Ingsoc.
One of the nonlinguistic methods imposed by the Party is the denial of one’s rationality and reality. In the novel, it was necessary to think that life was excellent not just remaining passive. Towards the end of the novel, this was shown as Winston accepted the reality happening around him by believing that Big Brother was a figure to be loved and “two plus two is equal to five.”
Another method employed was the creation of institutions that will manage the people. The popular institutions in Oceania were set up in order to foster hatred, and repression of potentially disruptive practices. Some examples are the Junior Anti-Sex League (which aimed in killing the sex instinct) and the Spies (which induced children to blindly love Big Brother and his principles). Events such as the “Two Minutes of Hate” were established in order to condition people in the pro-Ingsoc ideals. Moreover, the Party established ministries that rewrite and falsify history.
It has been said that the history of a society greatly defines its cultural identity. In the case of Oceania, however, the Party reformulates past documents in order to feed the members with unnoticeable lies that will continue the self-deception process and hence propagate the Ingsoc ideology and maintain Big Brother’s power.
Winston, the main character in 1984, embodies rationality, individualism and reality. In the end of the novel, however, he becomes an ordinary Oceania citizen, blindly following Big Brother. This is to say that the Party is always in control in Oceania. History, social institutions and even present reality are subjects to the dictatorial will of Big Brother. The manipulation of the consciousness of the citizens of Oceania using the newly invented Newspeak goes hand-in-hand with the totalitarian rule and control of the cultural conventions in Oceania. Everything is subject to control of the Party as such “two plus two is equal to five” becomes a valid statement for the Oceania citizens.
3. Conclusion
To best way to control a population is to control the minds of the population for people who blindly follow things are the easiest to manipulate. The best tool which could be used to propagate the absolute control of the population is language. Languages carry the consciousness of its people. In the case of Oceania, however, consciousness is diminished by the use of language.
Orwell showcases Newspeak in order to show the kind of world wherein individuality has become archaic and personality is a crime. Through the use of Newspeak, Orwell as also emphasized the relationship between language, thought and culture. The parallels between language and societal changes were shown in 1984 through the experiences of Winston and his desire to have the freedom of saying that “two plus two is equal to four.” It further elaborates that the imposition of a language is related with certain power structures which want to promulgate a certain ideology and or promote propaganda. The end of the novel stresses the power of the Party in 1984 and the death of rationality as Winston succumbs to the Ingsoc belief that “two plus two is equal to five.” This highlights the effects of absolute totalitarianism on individual consciousness as Orwell wanted to show, as a warning for the generations to come from his experiences during his lifetime.