1984 #3 Blog

1984 #3 Blog

In book one, chapter five, Winston speaks to a friend named Syme who is a specialist in Newspeak. During their conversation, Syme describes the benefits of Newspeak and the drawbacks of Oldspeak. George Orwell seems to have mixed feelings about Newspeak. In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” he makes it clear that he hates vague, superfluous language because it detracts from the meaning of the words. Syme states that Newspeak is destroying words so that there will be more efficiency and precision. Syme uses the word “good” as an example. Newspeak would eliminate unnecessary synonyms, antonyms, and degrees: there would only be good, ungood, and plusgood or doubleplusgood. As Syme says, “In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words — in reality, only one word” (51). Orwell dislikes the use of more words than what is needed, so he would probably admire this aspect of Newspeak. In addition, Newspeak would destroy vague words that have lost their meaning over time. One such example is “freedom.” Freedom is a word that is used so often that its meaning becomes less and less significant, obscuring its actual definition. As Syme points out, “the concept of freedom has been abolished” (53). In his essay, freedom is one of the words Orwell specifically criticizes for becoming vague through ovver-use: “The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have each of them several different meaning which cannot be reconciled with one another” (5). Orwell would most likely appreciate Newspeak’s simplicity and precision. However, he might also disdain it because of this simplicity. Newspeak follows almost no grammatical rules, and it lacks concreteness. It is simple enough to get rid of confusions and complexities, yet it is too simple to create an image within one’s mind. Orwell shows that this simplicity, while beneficial in some aspects, can destroy the though process of people: “The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now” (53). Orwell probably admires many aspects of Newspeak, but he also recognizes its major flaws, which is why he portrays Newspeak in a negative light where its used only for the benefit of the Party.