"Language as the “Ultimate Weapon” in Nineteen Eighty-Four" is an essay written by Jem Berkes in 2000. In the article, Jem Berkes discusses the inspiration behind the Newspeak language used by George Orwell inside his novel 1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four) and how it reflects in real-world situations we face day to day and how the language is powerful enough to express meaning, intention and ability.
Inside the novel 1984, there is a language called Newspeak which is a simplification of the English language, or as the novel refers it as Oldspeak. Newspeak vocabulary eliminates words that are not necessary. The new vocabulary helped the government to control people and affect memories from person's, in order to forget most of them or provoke and affect the way a person could express or think.
However, in this particular entry I won't talk about the essay written by Jem Berkes, I will answer a question asked by my professor which is something related to the essay, the novel and the course that I am taking: Why is the Nineteen Eighty-Four novel by George Orwell relevant to a me, an ordinary student taking the Programming Language course?
Since I was a student in kindergarten and until now that I am studying Computer Systems Engineering, I have learned the importance of words and the importance of grammar rules and how both of them complement the language to which they belong; this explanation has been given to me in 3 different languages: Spanish, English and French.
It is important to know different languages and appreciate the differences and characteristics of each. It is just like Programming Languages, as they are used to communicate with the computer, which gives us great power to develop software that will be used by many users around the world.
That's why the essay says that the ultimate weapon is the language. Language is the ultimate weapon for humanity, because with the correct usage of it, many problems can be solved; a war can be stopped if the countries involved on it communicate and express their arguments. In the novel 1984, the government had control of the language and communications; if the government had not control of it, people would live better.
Essay: Berkes, J. (2000). Language as the “Ultimate Weapon” in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Recovered from http://34.212.143.74/s201913/tc2006/language_ultimate_weapon.html
Book/Novel: Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Recovered from https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79n/index.html
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