Language as the “Supreme Weapon” in Nineteen Eighty-Four
Human beings live in a small world in which they have to communicate with each other. They exchange beliefs, knowledge, opinions, threats, wishes, feelings and promises. Communication is not only based on speaking acts and words but also on facial and body gestures. For instance, we smile to express amusement, happiness, or disrespect. We can also scream to express fear, anger, or excitement. We can use facial gestures to express disapproval or surprise, but the basic of communication before anything else is language. Moreover, Politics is another way of communication. It is the study of the distribution of power and laws within societies …show more content…
He uses it as a weapon to change truths, people, and a whole society! “Orwell shows how language can be used politically to deceive and manipulate people, leading to a society in which the people unquestioningly obey their government and mindlessly accept all propaganda as reality. Language becomes a mind-control tool, with the ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination”. (Berkes, 2000, p. 3) After all, language is the link to history. Winston’s job in the Ministry of Truth is to alter news and other documents that make the Party useless. After he replaces an original document with the fake one, all the originals are burnt. Orwell describes the …show more content…
By introducing a language barrier, the Party has a creative plan to break the link with the real past. When “all real knowledge of Oldspeak [disappears] . . . the whole literature of the past will have been destroyed” (Orwell, p.56). Thus, the modification of language and text not only effects the present, but also the past and future in different ways. A Party slogan in the novel reads: “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell, p.37). Orwell’s novel carries basic evidence for the readers, warning them about the powers of language. It shows how language can shape people’s sense of reality, how it can be used to erase truths, and even how it can be used to play with history. “Language is one of the key instruments of political dominations, the necessary and insidious means of the ‘totalitarian’ control of reality” (Rai, 1988, p.122). While the language in its familiar sense can extend horizons and improve our understanding of the world, Orwell’s novel demonstrates that language, when used in a nasty political way, can just as easily become “a plot against human consciousness” (Rahv, p.182).
Furthermore, words in Nineteen Eighty-Four are used in their opposite sense to reflect power and control. “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”. The Party is able to force people to accept anything it creates, even if it is entirely illogical. “War
Human beings live in a small world in which they have to communicate with each other. They exchange beliefs, knowledge, opinions, threats, wishes, feelings and promises. Communication is not only based on speaking acts and words but also on facial and body gestures. For instance, we smile to express amusement, happiness, or disrespect. We can also scream to express fear, anger, or excitement. We can use facial gestures to express disapproval or surprise, but the basic of communication before anything else is language. Moreover, Politics is another way of communication. It is the study of the distribution of power and laws within societies …show more content…
He uses it as a weapon to change truths, people, and a whole society! “Orwell shows how language can be used politically to deceive and manipulate people, leading to a society in which the people unquestioningly obey their government and mindlessly accept all propaganda as reality. Language becomes a mind-control tool, with the ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination”. (Berkes, 2000, p. 3) After all, language is the link to history. Winston’s job in the Ministry of Truth is to alter news and other documents that make the Party useless. After he replaces an original document with the fake one, all the originals are burnt. Orwell describes the …show more content…
By introducing a language barrier, the Party has a creative plan to break the link with the real past. When “all real knowledge of Oldspeak [disappears] . . . the whole literature of the past will have been destroyed” (Orwell, p.56). Thus, the modification of language and text not only effects the present, but also the past and future in different ways. A Party slogan in the novel reads: “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell, p.37). Orwell’s novel carries basic evidence for the readers, warning them about the powers of language. It shows how language can shape people’s sense of reality, how it can be used to erase truths, and even how it can be used to play with history. “Language is one of the key instruments of political dominations, the necessary and insidious means of the ‘totalitarian’ control of reality” (Rai, 1988, p.122). While the language in its familiar sense can extend horizons and improve our understanding of the world, Orwell’s novel demonstrates that language, when used in a nasty political way, can just as easily become “a plot against human consciousness” (Rahv, p.182).
Furthermore, words in Nineteen Eighty-Four are used in their opposite sense to reflect power and control. “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”. The Party is able to force people to accept anything it creates, even if it is entirely illogical. “War