Orwell vs. Orwell: Distant yet Complementary, and a Call to Action for the English Language by Saketh Tangirala

 Orwell vs. Orwell: Distant yet Complementary, and a Call to Action for the English

Language

George Orwell’s “The Principles of Newspeak” and “Politics and the English

Language,” consider reducing wordiness and thus streamlining language. They seem to

directly oppose each other at first glance, but the subjective language in each work

greatly differs. Newspeak is overly simplified and lacks resources for proper expression.

It is an attempt at establishing the authoritarian Party’s (from Orwell’s 1984) feeling of

control over the people they govern, as it actively deems certain concepts as

inappropriate and rids itself of possible references to them. This method’s success is

inherently flawed as people have ample capability to either creatively use existing

language or use modified forms, such as slang or a coded style. The Samizdat, a

Soviet-era underground newspaper to counter mass literature-based and public

censorship by spreading prohibited ideas, is a perfect example. A version of this paper

in the world of 1984 could have easily bypassed even the ban on word usage, proving

that the vocabulary limit by itself does not successfully empower an authoritarian

government. Contrary to Newspeak, the political language of Orwell’s time is too

complex. It carries lots of pretentious diction for false elegance and dignity, as well as

figurative language which has died out from being used so often (Orwell). These

contents are not just unnecessarily included in speech; they cloud the meaning of the

main message and in turn strip away its capability to engage the audience. Therefore,

the point of “Politics and the English Language” is to encourage preserving

straightforwardness and individuality with concise expression. It contradicts the very

essence of Newspeak which serves to “not extend but diminish the range of thought”

(Orwell) but they both are two sides of the same coin; one being too basic and the other

too complicated. Therefore, Newspeak and political language (and their respective

articles) supplement each other and show that the most effective form of language lies

in a middle zone between simplicity and complexity.

Sources:

* APPENDIX* The Principles of Newspeak

Politics and the English Language | The Orwell Foundation