Politics and the English Language
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1946
Plot Summary
George Orwell’s essay "Politics and the English Language" (1946) is a critique of the conventions of written English in the modernist and post-World War II era, focusing specifically on the correlation between political correctness and intellectual and linguistic poverty. Orwell lambasts people who use language as a tool to obfuscate, rather than convey, truth, arguing that language, though political, should never be weaponized with the intent to exploit vulnerable readers. Moreover, he remarks that such a use of language masks truth even from the one who thinks of and deploys it. The essay is well known for being an unusually literal and didactic departure from Orwell’s usual subject matter, which employs extended metaphors that refer to economic and class issues. The essay appears in the essay collection, Why I Write . Read further analysis of "Politics and the English Language" in the SuperSummary Study Guide for Why I Write .
Orwell relates what he sees as a direct correlation between bad writing and oppressive thought. He characterizes virtually all contemporary political speech and political prose as written to defend, minimize, or obfuscate atrocities and blatant inequities occurring in society. He gives the examples of continued British colonization of India on both political and ideological lines, as well as Russian deportations of Jews and dissenting figures, and the United States’ decision to decimate Hiroshima with an atom bomb. Though these actions, like any action, can be defended, the arguments that they necessitate require language that is too harsh for public consumption and conflicts with the professed aims of the political parties who wish to advocate for them. As a result, political language now relies mainly on minimizing language to euphemisms and deliberate vagueness. For example, the violent seizure of an enemy town might be termed “pacification,” while driving citizens from their homelands in mass deportations might be called a “transfer of population.” Orwell traces this linguistic phenomenon to the fact that vague language prevents one’s audience from coming to immediate terms with the often-violent realities that are its referents.
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Next, Orwell posits that insincerity is inimical to clarity of thought and language. Whenever there is a lacuna between a writer or speaker’s real and stated goals, the writer resorts to overly complex or grandiose language and overused idioms . He employs the simile of a cuttlefish spurting out ink to elude its foe. When writers, the supposed champions and representatives of their audience’s conception of language’s abilities and ends, disguise their points in strange diction, they perpetuate the ideologies of doublethink and euphemism. This kicks off a vicious cycle where language perpetually declines as language users resort to simpler and simpler words and phrasings. He compares this to the pathology of the alcoholic, who usually begins drinking excessively because he already feels like a failure. As he continues to drink, he ensures his failure, instigating his own fulfillment of this destructive attribution.
Orwell points out two more devices that insincere writers use. One is pretentious diction; that is, the use of overly complex or academic words to express biased viewpoints as if they were scientific and unbiased. The other is meaningless diction, the substitution of filler words where real arguments should be to exhaust the reader’s attention before reaching the crux of an argument. He states that these habits spread mainly by imitation, creating a kind of linguistic virus that propagates through various media. He argues that it behooves writers to help their audience think more clearly by themselves thinking more clearly and producing lucid writing that matches the content of their imaginations.
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Orwell concludes with a list of six rules that form a simple and finite axiomatic program to generate compelling and lucid writing. He poses the list as a remedy to the constant temptation to deploy meaningless diction, which always threatens to arrest and stifle the intellectual potential of the writer. The first rule is to never use a simile, metaphor, or any other figure of speech that one has already seen frequently used in other texts. He calls these “dying metaphors,” asserting that they are generally used when a writer doesn’t actually know what he or she means. Additionally, because of their vagueness and overuse, they are highly susceptible to manipulation in meaning. The second rule is to never use a longer word when a short word suffices as a unit of meaning. The third is to remove excess words that do not advance the argument or image under consideration. The fourth is to avoid passive voice . The fifth is to avoid using foreign, scientific, or overly dialectical words when there is an ordinary equivalent in a given language. The sixth and final rule is Orwell’s exhortation to willingly break these rules if it prevents one from saying something “barbarous.” Orwell ends his essay on a slightly optimistic note, arguing that the decline of the English language is reversible, and can be enacted by following rules such as the ones he has laid out.
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Politics and the English Language
By george orwell.
- Politics and the English Language Summary
George Orwell ’s essay “ Politics and the English Language ,” begins by refuting common presumptions that hold that the decline of the English language is a reflection of the state of society and politics, that this degeneration is inevitable, and that it’s hopeless to resist it. This disempowering idea, he says, derives from an understanding of language as a “natural growth” rather than an “instrument which we shape for our own purposes” (251). As an instrument, language can be manipulated for various purposes. As Orwell will show, language can also manipulate those who use it unconsciously.
He presents a list of corrupting habits that cause writers to think poorly and thus write poorly. The list includes unoriginal or mixed metaphors, pretentious diction, and abstract or meaningless language. When a person becomes lazy they allow their language to think for them. In this way, political writers end up following a party line. By using set phrases, they pantomime ideology without thinking. Independent thinking is necessary for a healthy political life.
As corrupted language smothers independent, original thinking, it thus serves a political purpose. Orwell demonstrates the deceptive effect of various political terms, showing how elevated, complex and abstract language actively disguises ugly and violent concrete realities. In this way, abstract language becomes a means for political writers to “justify unjustifiables.” He presents a list of tools that can be used to resist dishonest language.
Orwell sees the use of honest language as political act in itself, a form of resistance against insidious and widespread manipulations of rhetorical structures. He says that in an atmosphere of “terrible politics” (such as the period in which he’s writing), corrupted language is almost inevitable. But this doesn’t make the resistance against it futile. He returns to the claim that he opens with: that language is a tool, and not a natural evolutionary growth. It’s thus possible to manipulate that tool. It does however, take diligent, conscious effort on the part of the political writer or speaker. Orwell thinks that mindless and actively deceptive language can be identified and resisted through ridicule, and, most of all, through a diligent commitment to honest representation.
Politics and the English Language Questions and Answers
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Politics and English language
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the...
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Study Guide for Politics and the English Language
Politics and the English Language study guide contains a biography of George Orwell, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
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Politics and the English Language essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Politics and the English Language by George Orwell.
- The Adaptation of Language: An Analysis of Orwell's "Politics and the English Language"
Lesson Plan for Politics and the English Language
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