George Orwell’s 1984, like many other dystopian novels, features an all-powerful government that has changed the population to better suit their needs. That is, to keep the powerful in power. 1984 stands out from the crowd in how it depicts this greed. While the governments of many dystopian novels excuse their grabbing for power by claiming that it is for the greater good of the people, the Party of 1984 gives no excuse whatsoever, and makes little effort to hide it. O’Brien, when torturing Winston, asks him why the Party clings to its power. When Winston answers incorrectly, O’Brien explains that “the Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power” (Orwell 263).
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However, the implementation of Newspeak could be the most important part of keeping power over the lower classes. The goal of Newspeak is to simplify language. The dictionary is continuously being slimmed down, unnecessary words being removed. In the modern English dictionary, there are hundreds of words that share meanings with one another but have different emphasis. In Orwell’s Newspeak dictionary, words such as “great” and “excellent” will be replaced with “plusgood” and “doubleplusgood”. The Party is using Newspeak to “narrow the range of thought… make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it,” as according to Syme, one of the men behind the Newspeak dictionary. (Orwell 52). When the spoken and written word is ineloquent, none will have the capacity to make an original thought. With only a handful of words to choose from, opinions will almost disappear. When one person thinks something is “atrocious”, the next might think it is “terrible”, but both, when speaking Newspeak, would call it “doubleplusbad”. The only variation of opinions will be in the modifiers. As Syme said, when the language is condensed, thoughtcrime will gradually fade from
However, the implementation of Newspeak could be the most important part of keeping power over the lower classes. The goal of Newspeak is to simplify language. The dictionary is continuously being slimmed down, unnecessary words being removed. In the modern English dictionary, there are hundreds of words that share meanings with one another but have different emphasis. In Orwell’s Newspeak dictionary, words such as “great” and “excellent” will be replaced with “plusgood” and “doubleplusgood”. The Party is using Newspeak to “narrow the range of thought… make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it,” as according to Syme, one of the men behind the Newspeak dictionary. (Orwell 52). When the spoken and written word is ineloquent, none will have the capacity to make an original thought. With only a handful of words to choose from, opinions will almost disappear. When one person thinks something is “atrocious”, the next might think it is “terrible”, but both, when speaking Newspeak, would call it “doubleplusbad”. The only variation of opinions will be in the modifiers. As Syme said, when the language is condensed, thoughtcrime will gradually fade from