In ‘Politics and the English Language’, British writer George Orwell discusses the decadence of the English language and our civilization. Throughout this essay one can see Orwell’s desire for a simple language, one lacking metaphors, that uses short words and sentences, and that avoids pretentious words, like the use of jargon or foreign expressions. These ideas might have been the roots towards some of the motifs portrayed in his dystopian novel ‘1984’, where the State’s language ‘Newspeak’ is always removing words from its dictionary, making it simple.
Orwell suggests that the decline of language has political and economical causes, and is ‘not due to the bad influence of writers’, which is what people believe. However, he does reinforce that effects can become causes, explaining how our language becomes ‘ugly and inaccurate’ because our thoughts are foolish, but at the same time, the ‘slovenliness of our language makes us have foolish thoughts’. Nevertheless, Orwell believes that our written english, full of bad habits, can be changed.
The arguments presented by Orwell are very similar to those portrayed in his novel 1984. Ostentatious and wordy language, achieved by the abuse of metaphors (dying metaphors), ‘false verbs’, pretentious diction and meaningless words, has led to the lack of precision in our literature. Writers can no longer express themselves easily and simply, and end up saying something completely different to what they originally intended to. The vagueness of English prose is the concrete melted into the abstract; more meaningless words, used to describe one thing. Orwell conveys his ideas on the decadence of the English Language in 1984. In the novel, the State develops ‘Newspeak’, ‘the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year’ by reducing and simplifying grammar and vocabulary. The totalitarian State described in 1984, creates ‘Newspeak’ in order to make it impossible for people to rebel against the party, since they wil have no words to describe freedom. The idea is then ‘get one’s meaning as clear as one can through pictures or sensations’, using the fewest and shortest words.
The difference between what Orwell conveys in his essay and in his novel, is the totalitarian attitude behind it. In 1984, the simplicity of the language is to destroy the ideas of rebellion and freedom, imposing the party’s regime. Whereas, Orwell as a writer believes it is to reconstruct and improve our language, especially the written one.
In conclusion, the simpler the language, the better.
Hey Javiera,
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to be the first to comment on your post, you did a good job portraying the author's ideas. I like the connection you made between the 'Newspeak' and his essay on language, I completely agree with you.
However, I find it hard to see what your own opinion is. Do you believe as well that the simpler the language, the better? Think about all the English classes you've taken in your life, and how every time you had to write an essay, the teacher would tell you to be careful with your use of language, to use sophisticated words etc. Wouldn't you be shocked at the idea that writing in your simplest writing style, is the best? Using language that any little child uses while playing on the playground with his 5-year-old friends? Of course I'm exaggerating a little, but do you see what I'm trying to say?
Hey Jorina,
ReplyDeleteJust like you said, we have been taught to use sophisticated language while writing and talking, especially in English classes. However, by simpler language I do not mean that we should try to avoid complicated words, but try to use less complicated and wordy sentences, metaphors, etc. I don't know if that makes sense, but it is actually what Orwell said, so I'm supporting him in some way. By writing in this 'complicated manner' we ramble on on the same idea for a long time, maybe never getting to the point. Sophisticated words might help do the opposite since they are more specific, so you will need less words to go straight to the point.
What I did also say to Monique in my other entry, was that we have been taught to write in this way since (well in my case) we have been asked to always reach a certain word minimum, so it kind of encourages us to use useless words.
Let me know if it makes any sense. :)
Hey Javiera,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reply, it really helped clarifying things. I agree with you that simpler words are more straight to the point, but I wonder if our language wouldn't die like in 1984 if we kept reducing our vocabulary to the absolute necessary.