cheergurl01
11-03-2015, 08:22 PM
In 1984, Syme discusses Newspeak, the new language manifested by the party. Newspeak is created by gradually stripping the dictionary of any words viewed as "unnecessary." This includes replacing words like "excellent" and "horrible" with the bland Newspeak versions of "doubleplusgood" and "doubleplusbad." It completely narrows the power of language, and therefore narrows the power of our minds. Terrifyingly enough, this is exactly what the party wants. The philosophy behind Newspeak is to make it impossible to even conceive of rebellious or disobedient thoughts, because there are no words to even express those feelings. This is yet another way the party imposes its seemingly unbreakable power over the people of Oceania. Eventually, nobody will even be capable of conceptualizing anything that could possibly question the power of the party. It is absolutely horrifying to think that our minds and personal thoughts could be controlled so efficiently, and to think that we could be stripped of any self-conceived opinions. The idea of Newspeak proposes a form of power even more restricting than that of the telescreens watching the people of Oceania at every moment. Newspeak is a powerful symbol displayed by Orwell, and it shows how easily our perceptions can be warped.