Politics and the English Language

[Taezer]

Can someone help me find a couple of thematic elements in the essay "politics and the English Language". I have trouble understanding some of the essay and am not entirely sure what thematic elements are. Thank you.

[The Atheist]

Thematic Elements: "The tools an author uses to tell a story and get his or her message across are called Thematic Elements. Used alone or in conjunction with others, these literary terms refer to the devices which help the author to keep the story entertaining while adding depth and meaning to the work."

In other words, everything which contributes to getting Orwell's message across.

In Politics and the English Language a couple of simple ones to follow are:

Parody - using others' methods of construction (of words & sentences) to show how silly they can look compared to what the author actually wants to say. About page 7 of the essay has a couple of examples.

Shock tactics - a little further on in the essay, Orwell uses the horrors of war as an attention-grabber, then going on to show how accurate vs inaccurate reporting can give an entirely different perspective on what really happened.

Metaphor - this is a good one as the essay is littered with them while at the same time, Orwell shows us how stale metaphors detract from the message while fresh ones make the readert ake note.

Good luck!

Feel free to seek clarification/extra points.

[Taezer]

Thanks. I think i will be needing some help, were pretty much spending the entire semester reading Orwell's writings.

[The Atheist]

You've definitely come to the right place then!