Last week on Friday in E.R.W I participated in a group
activity called Socratic Seminar where discussed about the novel 1984 written
by George Orwell. One of the main topics we discussed about was how smart the
party was in 1984. The inner party was able to manipulate the kids to learn how
to adore and love the party. They teach the kids to observe their parents and
tell the party about and irregularities. Another main topic we talked about in
Socratic Seminar is Newspeak concept in the novel 1984. The concept of Newspeak
is a language that gets not larger but smaller as the time passes. So there are
less words used to explain certain things. For example instead of using the word
“bad” they use the word “ungood” and instead of having synonyms of a word like “great”
or ‘excellent” they use “plusgood” or “doubleplusegood”. The party uses this form of language so they
can prevent the thoughts the people have since as time goes on they wont have a
word to express the way they feel or thoughts they are having. In the end, I think
that this was a pretty fun and interesting activity because even though I didn’t
speak, it helped me see the book from other points of view and see it in other’s
perspective.
First of all, I was really hoping you would speak up on Friday because I know you have some pretty good views. Its all good though. Its so crazy how George Orwell thought up of Newspeak as their language and how it limits them to only so much words to express themselves. I know if I were the one trying to think of finding a way to limit the freedom of a group of people it would take me quite a while to think up of limiting their speech. Just like how Jeremy said, its such a mastermind move and when you put thought into it plays such a key role in their society. It kind of gets me wondering if you were living in their world and you had a medical problem but you couldn't describe the pain since you speak was so limited. It would really be "doubleplusungood".
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