Journal
Brainstorm a list of words with similar but
more precise meanings for each of these:
Glad
Sad
Mad
Why is it important to have a broader range
of choices in our language than these?
“It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the
great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of
nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn't only the synonyms; there are
also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is
simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in
itself. Take ‘good,’ for instance. If you have a word like ‘good,’ what need
is there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well -- better,
because it's an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you
want a stronger version of ‘good,’ what sense is there in having a whole
string of vague useless words like ‘excellent’ and ‘splendid’ and all the
rest of them? ‘Plusgood’ covers the meaning, or ‘doubleplusgood’ if you
want something stronger still. Of course we use those forms already, but
in the final version of Newspeak there'll be nothing else. In the end the
whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six
words—in reality, only one word. Don't you see the beauty of that,
Winston? It was B.B.'s idea originally, of course,” he added as an
afterthought.
A sort of vapid eagerness flitted across Winston's face at the
mention of Big Brother. Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a
certain lack of enthusiasm.
“You haven't a real appreciation of Newspeak, Winston,” he
said almost sadly. “Even when you write it you're still thinking in
Oldspeak. I've read some of those pieces that you write in The Times
occasionally. They're good enough, but they're translations. In your
heart you'd prefer to stick to Oldspeak, with all its vagueness and its
useless shades of meaning. You don't grasp the beauty of the destruction
of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the
world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?”
Winston did know that, of course. He smiled, sympathetically
he hoped, not trusting himself to speak. Syme bit off another fragment
of the dark-coloured bread, chewed it briefly, and went on:
“Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow
the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally
impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly
one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary
meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition,
we're not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing
long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and
the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course,
there's no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a
question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be
any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the
language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak,” he
added with a sort of mystical satisfaction. “Has it ever occurred to you,
Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human
being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are
having now?”
George Orwell
Terms to Know

dystopia – “an imaginary place where people lead
dehumanized and often fearful lives; anti-utopia”
 “An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or
bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one”



oligarchy – “government by the few; a government in which
a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and
selfish purposes”
socialism – “any of various economic and political theories
advocating collective or governmental ownership and
administration of the means of production and distribution
of goods; a system of society or group living in which there
is no private property”
propaganda – “the spreading of ideas, information, or
rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a
cause, or a person”
Dystopian Novel
Plot: after terrible things happen to the
characters, the characters escape their fate
OR the establishment wins
 Common structure

 Exposition establishes the parameters of the society
and introduces the characters; some event
introduces the conflict and begins the rising action
 Rising action follows the attempts of the main
character’s attempt to escape or change the society;
the climax occurs when one side must win
 Falling action is the aftermath; theme is derived from
the resolution: whether the character’s attempt
succeeds or fails
Dystopian Novel
Common characters:


Representatives of the powerful, those in control
Representatives of the “typical” citizen, perfectly
happy with the society or blissfully unaware of the
society’s flaws
 Sometimes staunchly patriotic and cannot
comprehend anyone’s dissatisfaction with the society
 Sometimes naively take for granted that the way
things are is simply the way things are
 Sometimes passive/philosophical (aware of the flaws
of the society but accepting of them—believe there is
no need for change or no point in attempting it
Dystopian Novel

At least one character is disenfranchised and
desires change or escape
 Sometimes begins loving the society and holding a
high rank but changes beliefs
 Sometimes begin already disliking the society and
desire change but feel powerless
The narrative point of view is almost always from
the inside, a member of the society or someone
who enters it and is adopted. Rarely can an
outsider offer a convincing evaluation of the
society.
Dystopian Novel: Common Themes






The individual is worth nothing more in a dystopian novel than
his or her value as part of the governmental machine.
Power can reside either in a single dictator or in a larger
governmental organization.
Major forms of control in many dystopian novels include
means of communication, education, mass media, and popular
culture.
Military control can be a factor in the dystopian novel but to a
lesser extent than other, more subtle forms of social control.
The controlling body often uses pop culture to distract its
members and thus control them.
The controlling body finds and uses a scapegoat to deflect the
blame for the suffering of the people.
1984 Terms to Know







“INGSOC”
“telescreen”
“unperson”
“newspeak”/”oldspeak”
“thoughtcrime”
“doublethink”
“facecrime”







“proles”
“Golden Country”
“Oceania”
“Eastasia”
“Eurasia”
“Two Minutes
Hate”/”Hate Week”
“orthodox”/”unorthodox”
2+2=5
Characters
Winston
 Julia
 O’Brien
 Charrington
 Syme
 Katharine
 Parsons
 Emmanuel Goldstein

Part One Questions
1. Language/Logic, Setting: What does the opening sentence
(“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were
striking thirteen”) suggest about the book?
2. Irony/Paradox, Language/Logic: What are the Party mottos?
What is unusual about them?
3. Language/Logic, Theme: What is Newspeak? What is its
purpose?
4. Language/Logic: Who is Big Brother, and what is the
significance of his name?
5. Language/Logic: What is facecrime? Why is it so easy to
commit?
6. Theme, Irony/Paradox: How does the Party control history?
Why?
7. Plot, Theme: Who is Emmanuel Goldstein, and how is he
presented to the people of Oceania? What is the probable
significance of using the obviously Jewish name?
Part Two Questions
8. Character: In what ways are Julia and Winston alike?
In what ways are they different?
9. Theme: Why does the Party permit couples to marry
but discourage love?
10. Plot: O’Brien asks Winston and Julia what they are
willing to do for the Brotherhood. What are they
willing to do? What is the one thing they are unwilling
to do?
11. Plot: Why are the three superpowers always at war
according to the Brotherhood’s handbook?
12. Plot, Irony/Paradox: How are Winston and Julia
betrayed?
Part Three Questions
13. Character, Irony/Paradox: How does Parsons feel about
being imprisoned as a result of his own daughter
reporting him for thoughtcrime?
14. Theme, Plot: Before Winston is interrogated, he sees
many prisoners escorted to Room 101. From their
reactions, he gathers the room is extremely unpleasant.
What is in Room 101?
15. Plot: When and in what way does Winston betray Julia?
16. Plot: Why does O’Brien say prisoners are brought to the
Ministry of Love?
17. Plot: What happens to Julia?
18. Theme, Irony/Paradox: How does Winston
ultimately feel about Big Brother?
Propaganda
“A new poster had suddenly appeared all over
London. It had no caption, and represented simply
the monstrous figure of a Eurasian soldier, three or
four metres high, striding forward with
expressionless Mongolian face and enormous
boots, a submachine gun pointed from his hip. From
whatever angle you looked at the poster, the muzzle
of the gun, magnified by the foreshortening, seemed
to be pointed straight at you. The thing had been
plastered on every blank space on every wall, even
outnumbering the portraits of Big Brother” (Part II,
Chapter V)
Propaganda
“On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions,
the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the
posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and
squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the
grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed
planes, the booming of guns — after six days of this, when
the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general
hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the
crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian warcriminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of
the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them
to pieces — at just this moment it had been announced that
Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at
war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally” (Part II, Chapter IV).
Language, Perception,
and Reality
A Study for 1984
Created by Mr. Burgin Mathews, Spain Park High School
I. Some Questions
How does language shape our reality?
In what ways does language create our concept
of the world around us?
In what ways is language used to manipulate us?
II. Some Observations
“The limits of my language are the
limits of my world.”
--Ludwig Wittgenstein,
Austrian philosopher
“A different
language is a
different vision of
life.”
--Federico Fellini,
Italian filmmaker
III. MANIPULATING LANGUAGE
(and being manipulated by language)
Euphemism: a pleasant way of saying something
unpleasant
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“I have to powder my nose”
“number one” or “number two”?
“the birds and the bees”
to “pass away” or “expire” (to die)
“let go” (you’re fired)
“between jobs” (unemployed)
“adult entertainment” (pornography)
Business euphemisms
junk mail
“direct marketing”
used car
“pre-owned vehicle”
massive lay-offs
“downsizing”
Political consultant Frank Luntz, in
his book Words that Work, explains
that some terms simply sound better
to the American public: go with the
softer term, and they’re more willing
to “buy” it.
... Two of Luntz’s favorite examples:
wiretapping?
electronic intercepts!
oil drilling?
exploring for energy!
Luntz says that his
words are more
“precise.”
His critics say that
they are “misleading.”
(What do you think?)
…other political euphemisms:
“regime change”
overthrow
“remains packages”
body bags
“collateral damage”
“ethnic cleansing”
civilian casualties
genocide
BUT WAIT
Euphemistic language isn’t just
for businesspeople and
politicians, and it isn’t just for
finding a polite way to say “I
have to go to the bathroom.”
From the Personal Want Ad “Code Word”
Dictionary:
What it says
What it really means
“Affectionate”
Needy
“Appreciates quality”
Expects someone else to pay for it
“Beautiful”
Spends a lot of time in front of the mirror
“Enjoys long walks”
Car has been repossessed
“Excited about life’s journey”
No concept of reality
“Gentle”
Near-comatose
“High standards”
Blind to own flaws, unforgiving of others’
“Life of the party”
Poor impulse control
“Outgoing”
Loud
“Perfect”
Self-delusional
IV. Weasel Words
A lot of what we have
been talking about
already—euphemisms
that deliberately
misrepresent, or that in
fact mean the very
opposite of what they
suggest—have been
categorized as “weasel
words.”
“One of our defects as a nation is a
tendency to use what have been called
‘weasel words.’ When a weasel sucks
eggs the meat is sucked out of the egg. If
you use a weasel word after another
there is nothing left of the other. ”
--Teddy Roosevelt, 1916,
in response to Woodrow Wilson’s call
for “universal voluntary” military
training
“Universal voluntary” military training?
According to Kenneth Wilson in the Columbia
Guide to Standard American English, weasel
words are “sly, cunning, and sneaky; they lack
integrity, and they conceal the truth. In the
end they say one thing and mean something
quite different.”
DANGER! BEWARE OF SNEAKY, MISLEADING,
WEASELLY-WORDY ADVERTISING!
• “Part of a nutritious
breakfast”
• “Up to 70% off!”
• “Congratulations! You
are already a winner!”
V. Naming Your Terms:
Further Excursions in Careful Wording
“A good catchword can
obscure analysis for
fifty years.”
--Wendell Wilkie,
presidential candidate (1940)
Anti-abortion?
PRO-LIFE!
For abortion?
PRO-CHOICE!
“Yesterday the
President met with a
group he calls the
‘Coalition of the
Willing.’
Or, as the rest of the
world calls them, Britain
and Spain.
--Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
Which makes a more attractive sell?
ESCALATION… or a SURGE?
Listen to the current discussion of health care.
What biases are implied in these word choices?
HEALTH CARE REFORM
HEALTH CARE MANDATE
GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER
OBAMACARE
ROMNEYCARE
Homeland Security Advisor Frances
Townsend on CNN--CNN INTERVIEWER: You know, going back to
September 2001, the president said, dead or
alive, we're going to get him [Osama bin
Laden]. Still don't have him. I know you are
saying there's successes on the war on terror,
and there have been. That's a failure.
TOWNSEND: Well, I'm not sure — it's a
success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know
that I view that as a failure.
“Failure”?
Or “success that hasn’t occurred yet”?
“war”?
or
“kinetic military action”?
AMERICA at NOT-WAR!
“We're not talking about war; we're
talking about action.”
--Nancy Pelosi, Sept. 3, 2013
VI.
“Every word is a preconceived judgment.”
--Friedrich Nietszche, 1878
“The Civil War”
or “The War of Northern Aggression”?
Watch the immigration debates:
“Illegal”
or “undocumented”?
A “bailout”…
…or a “rescue package”?
Check out the language in the debates on gay
marriage:
“Gay marriage”
“Marriage equality”
“Anti-equality”
“Just don’t call it marriage!”
(So, okay, if you’re paying attention, my
original question—“How does language
control reality”—likewise rules out the
possibility that language doesn’t control
reality!
Is this “leading the witness”?)
VII. “Doublespeak”
The word
“doublespeak” will
always be associated
with George Orwell,
even though it doesn’t
appear in 1984. As a
kind of combination of
doublethink and
newspeak, though,
“doublespeak” certainly
has its origins in
Orwell’s novel.
"In our time, political speech and writing are largely the
defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of
British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the
dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan, can indeed be
defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for
most people to face, and which do not square with the
professed aims of political parties. Thus political language has
to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer
cloudy vagueness. Defenseless villages are bombarded from
the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the
cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary
bullets: this is called pacification."
–Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946
(This term, by the way, is at least as old as
Caesar, who was celebrated (by the Roman
Empire) for his “pacification” of the Gauls.)
Doublespeak is a kind of language built on
oxymoron and paradox, in which (if you will)
“fair is foul and foul is fair,” and “nothing is but
what is not.”
“I just want you to know that, when we talk
about war, we’re really talking about peace.”
(How does that go again?)
I just want you to know that,
when we talk about war, we're
really talking about peace. We
want there to be peace. We
want people to live in peace all
around the world. I mean, our
vision for peace extends
beyond America. We believe in
peace in South Asia. We
believe in peace in the Middle
East. We're going to be
steadfast toward a vision that
rejects terror and killing, and
honors peace and hope.
--George W. Bush, June 2002
I believe that force can be justified
on humanitarian grounds, as it
was in the Balkans, or in other
places that have been scarred by
war. Inaction tears at our
conscience and can lead to more
costly intervention later. That is
why all responsible nations must
embrace the role that militaries
with a clear mandate can play to
keep the peace.
-- Barack Obama, Nobel Peace
Prize acceptance speech
Have you ever been asked to engage in
doublethink?
When and how often?
VIII.
Don’t lie!
Obfuscate!
Equivocate!
It depends on what the meaning of
the word is is.
“…If ‘is’ means is and never has been, … that is
one thing. If it means there is none, that was
a completely true statement…. Now, if
someone had asked me a question in the
present tense, I would have said no. And it
would have been completely true.”
--William Jefferson Clinton, explaining to a grand jury why
he was not lying when he said, in regard to Monica
Lewinski, “there is nothing between us.”
After all:
“No one means all he says,
yet very few say all they mean,
for words are slippery
and thought is vicious.”
--Henry Adams, 1907
IX. Two Cartoons
X. So, what’s the point of all this?
"Trust no one?"
"Give up on politics?"
"Don’t Eat Cocoa Puffs?"
No, that’s not the point.
The point is . . .
Be conscious of the language you consume.
Do not be manipulated by anyone’s language.
Study your vocab words! (The more you know...)
Demand clearer, more truthful language from
your world.
If you can "read, interpret, analyze, and
understand" The Scarlet Letter and Beowulf,
then you must also read, interpret, analyze,
and understand the world around you!
Homework
Bring in an example of language
manipulation from any print media
(newspapers, magazines, junk mail, cereal
box, etc.—not from Internet or TV).
Write a brief paragraph explaining the type of
manipulation you see. Identify specific
techniques we’ve talked about: euphemism,
weasel words, doublespeak, obfuscation, etc.
Be prepared to share yours with the class.