Newspeak

Newspeak

Newspeak vaporized the minds of the citizen of Ocenia, who were members of The Party. Imagine being in an environment in which you were not able to think. Imagine being treated like a robot. Imagine having no feelings like a robot, doing only what you are ordered to do, nothing for yourself. Welcome to Oceania, the utopian society of 1984 by George Orwell. In Oceania executive level members of The Party used Newspeak to gain control of the minds of lower level - common - party members. To gain control of the minds, first The Party diminished thought. For example on Page 45, Winston's friend Syme says, "We're destroying words - scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We're cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won't contain a single word that will be obsolete before the year 2050." Unlike other languages Newspeak was designed to diminish thought, rather than help expression. Instead of gaining words, day-by-day Newspeak would lose them. If there is no word for the concept of freedom, how can a person in the party think about freedom? By limiting the language, the party members are limited in their thought. Fewer words make expression difficult. If there is little or no expression of any type the mind is more easily controlled. Newspeak vaporized thought.

Now that Newspeak had gotten rid of thought, it became easier to take control of the people. For example on Page 17 the narrator says that one of the slogans is, "War is Peace." Having no thought, the party members were brainwashed. They were told that being at war is peace. Even though what they were told was not true, the party members believed it. They believed it because they didn't know better. There was no word in the Newspeak dictionary that made the party members think even for a second that what they were being told was wrong. If there is nothing in the Newspeak dictionary that contradicts this statement, the minds of the members will not think. That is why Newspeak loses words day-by-day. Using slogans like this one, the Executive level members of The Party were able to take control of the minds of lower level party members.

Having attained control of the lower level members of The Party, "Big Brother" can now force them to work in the joycamp. Don't let the word fool you. Joycamp is another word that is used to make