Language Evaluation in 1984

The purpose of George Orwells 1984 and Fredrick Douglas Learning to Read and Write was to show the audience the power and abuse of language. They were written to warn people of what might become of us if we dont change the way we communicate. In George Orwells 1984, he discusses how the way we say something can affect how the audience portrays it. The party and Big Brother represented a dictatorship that took over the peoples minds and communication. For after all, now do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? (Orwell 80.) The partys communication to the people makes them question themselves and what they know. In George Orwells Politics and the English Language, he points out how lazy we have gotten in our communication. Many of these are used without knowledge of their meaning (what is rift, for instance?) and incompatible metaphors are frequently mixed, a sure sign that the writer is not interested in what he is saying. (Orwell 3.) We have to understand and be able to back up what we are saying or we shouldnt say it at all. In Fredrick Douglas Learning to Read and Write, he discusses how language can be a very powerful tool in a persons life, and shouldnt be abused. Reading and Writing opened up many new doors for Douglas as a slave. Thus, after a long, tedious Writing and communicating can mean the difference between freedom and enslavement. He also mentions that he sometimes wishes he had never learned to read and write. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedyI often wished myself a beast. (Douglas 103.) Douglas starts to actually experience the power of language that he never knew existed. Douglas, like Orwell, also states that the way you say something can affect how the audience portrays it. The power and abuse of language is very well represented in these two books. They both experienced the power of language and if it is abused, how it can change a life. George Orwells 1984 is a perfect representation of how a society with no thoughts can quickly go downhill. Fredrick Douglas Learning to Read and Write represents how language can free a man.