Newspeak and the Dumbing Down of Language Essay

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1984 Writing Assignment

JRSM 301 DLF

Writing

In 1984, the Party uses a number of means to influence the people of Oceania and keep them from rebelling. Methods that the Party uses include 1) the rewriting of history, 2) the reshaping and dumbing down of language (Newspeak), and 3) the issuance of mindless entertainment (newspapers full of sports, movies, Pornosec) that keeps the masses bemused. At the same time, however, there is a counter-effect of this sort of control, which rises from time to time and is described as Goldsteinism, though it is unclear whether this force is real or not. This paper will describe the methods used by the Party to control the masses and discuss the possibility of such control/manipulation leading to an uprising.

The first method of societal control the Party employs is the rewriting of history. History tells the people who they are where they come from. The Party rewrites it in order to make itself always look good: "Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up-to-date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct...." (Orwell 51). The adverse effect of this, however, is that some thinking people, such as Winston, begin to question these changes -- they have an inkling of truth and want to know why things are the way they are, which sends them on a search.

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This search has the possibility of leading to revolt, as the Party well knows, which is why it demonizes Goldstein.

Another method used by the Party is Newspeak, which excises words from meaning and reduces the vocabulary of the people by applying terms like "ungood" and "unperson" (Orwell 58). As the Party puts it, "it's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words" (Orwell 65). It does come at a price, however; such destruction could fuel resistance to the Party by inspiring persons to cling even more tightly to their old ways, their traditions, their language, culture, and identity, and so on. The more tightly people cling, the more of a threat they could become.

Finally, the Party uses entertainment to subdue the masses and keep them in a state of triviality. The Party prints newspapers full of nothing but sport and entertainment, shows films, and sends out Pornosec (Orwell 55). The purpose is to culturally undermine the people by giving….....

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