This 5 page essay deals with the question of the power of language. Does language reflect reality or does it shape it? Examples are given from George Orwell's novel, 1984, which support the position that language does indeed have power to influence, but that it only reflects what is already existing.
Short synopsis of 1984 included. Bibliography lists 1 source.
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Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
language. This written language has allowed mankind to preserve a vast body of knowledge for its own species that does not exist for any other species on the planet. Therefore,
the question must be: does language reflect reality, or does it shape it? And, if it shapes it are they really changing it or are the words simply giving a
description of what already exists? The argument is better supported that the words only report what is already on the mind and in the heart of the writer. However, by
the careful use and manipulation of the language, it can be stated that the point of view of the writer can be quickly embraced by the majority of the public
to the point that the community forgets where the thought originated. This type of phenomenon is quite clearly portrayed in George Orwells book, 1984. In this book, Winston Smith, awakens
from a very bad dream and into a nightmare of a carefully controlled and manipulated, engineered society. The language is reflective and symbolic at the same time as can be
seen from the following excerpt: "The program of the Two Minutes Hate varied from day to day, but there was none in which Goldstein was not the principal figure.
He was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Partys purity. All subsequent crimes against the Party, all treacheries, acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of
his teaching" (Orwell, 13). The Two Minute Hate, the Year of our Ford, and the Ministry of Truth are some of the plays on language that Orwell utilizes
in order to make the reader intuitively believe just the opposite of the literal words. With the exception of the Two Minute Hate( where everyone gets the aggressive tendencies out