Compare The Use Of Language In A Clockwork Orange And Nineteen Eighty Four

Use of Language as a Tool of ManipulationNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
The use of language in the novels A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four often leaves the reader wondering what the writers are talking about. This is especially true when one is reading the books for the first time. Both of these authors use Nedsat and Newspeak to portray the different ways through which language can be used to manipulate people’s minds. Orwell presents a situation where language is used by those in power and the media to mask the truth leading to the creation of society where people easily follow what the government is saying without any further questioning. On his side, Burgess uses Nedsat which is an argot to make it difficult for the reader to understand what he is trying to talk about. The characters in the book such as Alex use this language to hide away from the authorities. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the way in which language can be used by few people in the society to create a misunderstanding and limit the thinking ability of the people.
The use of language by a few in the society is often presented in a hypocritical way. The people using the language often want to appear that they are using it for the good of all the people but later as we see in both novels, they are using it for their own good. When people elsewhere are looking for ways of expanding their language, the government in Nineteen Eighty-Four is looking for ways of cutting down their Newspeak vocabulary. In page 55, one of the engineers of the language says, “We are cutting the language down to the bone…Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year”. However, as we see later in the novel, the government is only using this as a technique of manipulating the way people understand the language. They do not want so many people to understand the language. There would also be some missing vocabularies making it difficult for the people to communicate. In real cases, when you try to think about something and you look for words to express what you are thinking about and you realize the vocabulary is not there, then you will remain silent about it.
In the novel, A Clockwork Orange, things are not different. In fact, the narration of the novel has been presented in the first person by the main character Alex. The use of the words, ‘O my Brothers’ by the narrator often attracts the reader and makes them attentive since Alex is addressing them. However, as you begin to read, one can feel discriminated since they are not understanding the Nedsat language that ha...