Language and How it Relates to Freedom

There are many languages in the world today, both foreign and modern, but all of these diverse languages have one thing in common, they represent our freedom. We are showing our freedom that is stated to us in the First Amendment, by merely getting our opinions out there in one way or another. Some people choose to express their freedom through music by making mix tapes, and some choose to be like Winston and write in a way that other people think will soon be extinct. Winston writes in his diary because he is not only tired of the society he lives in, but he cannot say these things out loud or even think them, yet he knows that writing them down is just as bad. In this sense he is a patriot, putting his ideas out there and using the written language to defy the society. This is not allowed in this society because if someone breaks away from the party then other will start to as well, which is why thinking up heretic things about the party is considered to be a thoughtcrime. Winston commits a thoughtcrime through the written language. Winston is drawn to this type of language because he does not like Newspeak, and he prefers Oldspeak, and this is because he faces Newspeak everyday at his job. However, his comrade Syme has the job of destroying words and he thinks that eventually we will only have a few words left to describe so many things. He doesn’t like the language Oldspeak, because he thinks it is too vague and has to many shades of meaning, while with Newspeak is much more simple with words abbreviated and pulled together. The language in this society is restricted to Newspeak because if people were to use other languages this might promote new ideas, and of course that is a crime and you will disappear. The party has to eliminate words every day, and this will eventually lead to the change in the literature, slogans, and in this society orthodoxy will mean not needing to think. The party does not want people to think, they don’t want them to write, and this stifles the individuality that Winston so desperately craves, which is why he writes to be an individual. Language allows everyone to create their own individuality.