Essay Preview: 1984
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Topic: The Language of Newspeak
The opening of the language newspeak starts in Part I chapter five with Syme telling Winston that he is working on the eleventh edition of the Newspeak Dictionary. Syms explains how they are destroying hundreds of words everyday “cutting the language down to the bone”. As Syms is giving details as to how it is all being done the importance of the project starts to sink in, it is not just language that is being destroyed, it is the effort to wipe out consciousness and thought itself.
The significant role that the language Newspeak plays in the story is that the Big Brother is trying to create a new language. The intention of creating a new language and destroying words is to eventually limit the range of thought that the party members have. By destroying words and simplifying the language the Party members will have hardly any number of ways in which they can communicate with themselves and this can be closely watched because there will ultimately be so few words. When the
creation or destruction of the language is complete the need for the Thought Police will lessen because it will be virtually impossible to commit any serious acts against the Party, because there will be no way in which to express disagreement.
This topic also ties in with conditioning and physical manipulation. The language of the people was under Party Control. The slogans of Newspeak were “War is Peace” Freedom is Slavery” and “Ignorance is Strength.” These slogans are conditioning the people to think that there is no better life, and to fear the party.