How Does George Orwell Use Language In 1984

Throughout history, the primary method of expressing oneself has been through language, from the lyrics of songs to emotion packed novels and countless other forms. In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the society of a nation known as Oceania is under constant control and surveillance from a government called the Party. The Party’s stability and continued power rely on the inability of the people to have emotions or thoughts, as that could lead to rebellion. In order to control the people, the Party manipulated the language by using its slogans and a language known as Newspeak. The implementation of Newspeak and other manipulations of language were done with the purpose of limiting and distorting the public’s ability to express their thoughts and feelings by eliminating or mutating the meanings of the words necessary to do so.

The slogans of the party are “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength”; these slogans are constantly repeated to the point where it brainwashes the people of the Party and changes the meanings
Orwell illustrates this by showing the power Newspeak has over the people's perception of the past and present by manipulating the meanings of the words and changing history and news. Finally, Orwell mainly wrote 1984 to warn about the dangers of a totalitarian government, and the Party creating Newspeak to control its people was part of that warning. However, while there are countless ways that language is changing in the modern day, from abbreviations to slang, these changes are due to the inevitable evolution of language. In conclusion, George Orwell’s book 1984 shows the effect language has on one’s ability to express their opinions and