The Manipulation of Language used in both Brave New World and Animal Farm to control the masses Free Essay Example, 1000 words

The Manipulation of Language in both Brave New World and Animal Farm In the novel â€Å"Brave New World†by Aldous Huxley and the novel â€Å"Animal Farm† by George Orwell, the writers discuss the important aspect of manipulation of language and distortion of the truth that is used by the powerful classes to manage and suppress the lower classes. The paper will draw attention to this theme used in  Brave New World  by Aldous Huxley and  Animal Farm  by George Orwell. There is a strong element of projecting a world where the few in power manipulate language to control the masses by the use of technology, dishonesty through distortion of rhetoric and by class stratification. In both the novels, there is struggle for power and wealth, for survival and diktat through jousting. In doing so, there is chaos and disturbance which gives the reader an apocalyptic image of the world. For example, in Brave New World the society is made to conform to a certain culture and belief system. It is trained into believing that everyone is destined to be in the role that they have been placed into, by influence as the Director of Hatcheries in the novel puts it: "that is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what youve got to do. We will write a custom essay sample on The Manipulation of Language used in both Brave New World and Animal Farm to control the masses or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny. † (Huxley, Ch. 1. 1946). The Director of Hatcheries uses his language to keep all the lower classes content with what they had and to explain to them that that was the only way that they could lead a life. Mustapha Mond believes that the future idealistic world will consist of conditioned and processed humans who will submit to the social conventionality. Hence, he governs a very surreal image of humans who are driven away from books and obliged to chase after science. Mond uses his knowledge of the Bible and language of Shakespeare to control a totalitarian state. He makes language a paradox for others, so much so that when John quotes the words from The Tempest, â€Å"brave new world†, there is more hostility involved in it than awe because Mustapha Mond creates the World State to look at things in such a manner. Likewise, the language of the pigs bec omes ridiculously elitist, controlling, incoherent and a meandering discourse when they speak. This technique highlights the usurpation of power as one of the dominant themes of the novel. The language controls the reality. The linguistic skills of the pigs overpower the undersized language of the rest of the animals. The novel opens with the narrative that quickly ascertains the dominance of language through the speech of old Major who â€Å"was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour’s sleep in order to hear what he had to say† (Orwell, Ch. 1.