Language Influencing Reality and Reality Influencing Language in George Orwell’s 1984

Abstract

Nineteen Eighty-four (1949) is a book that created a great impression on readers almost seventy years ago as well as it still makes an impact today in new generations. The dystopian world that George Orwell generated seems both impossible and plausible. After World War I and World War II Orwell wrote about a hypothetical future that would involve a perpetual World War. Ingsoc (English Socialim), the Party ruling over Oceania, installed telescreens all over the city as well as inside buildings including people’s own homes in order to constantly monitor them and detect the possible secretly rebelling individuals before they get a chance to act. The Party creates Newspeak, a new language based upon Standard English in order to express better Ingsoc principles and to render impossible thoughtcrime (any thought that does not coincide with the Party). Winston is the main character that seems to be guilty of thoughtcrime as he doubts Ingsoc and his thoughts do not submit to the Party’s principles. The Party seeks power in order to rule not only over people’s physical bodies but especially their minds. Then, the question that this paper poses using Nineteen Eighty-four as a case study is: Does reality influence people’s minds or does language influence thoughts?