George Orwell "Politics and the English Language, 1946"


George Orwell feels very strongly towards the revolution of the English Language. He feels the English Language is in a 'bad way' and nothing can be done to resolve it. From Orwell starting of his blog in this manner / tone, shows his hatred and frustration in the way the English Language is heading. Also according to Orwell, the English Language has become 'ugly' and 'inaccurate' due to our thoughts being 'foolish', leading to the 'slovenliness' of our language. This portrays Orwell's pettiness upon our modern language. These gestures are also similar, as Orwell describes that our words are used without knowledge or meaning i.e. 'rift'. It seems to be like Orwell is mocking the terms and showing hatred towards the English Language. 

Orwell also describes the English Language as elimination of simple verbs and producing them as phrases made up of noun or adjectives. In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning. So Orwell is painting the picture, that words like 'romantic and plastics' are meaningless. Towards the end of the blog, Orwell emphasis that rules have been broken and he quotes ' one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase'. Overall i think Orwell's main objective of the the blog was to show his passion of hatred towards English Language, but to also hope habits are changed.   

In my opinion, i agree the English Language has changed dramatically, but that's basically the whole point of different generations. If Orwell was able to use his English today, he would look unorthodox, and out of place.