On "Politics and the English Language"

     George Orwell comments on how the English language has evolved with politics; politicians use the increasingly ambigious and superfluous words of the modern English language. I see this change in language everywhere, not just in politics. People use euphemisms to hide the pain of the truth. Students switch their original word choices for college vocabuluary from a thesaurus. Politicians hide a lack of facts under inspiring speech. But at some point, it has to be about the content, not the flowery diction.
     Orwell uses lots of example throughout this essay, and the examples are essential to backing up his point. He uses long lists of italicized phrases and words to show examples of the problems he his describing. Some of these phrases are outdated, but since he has such long lists, modern readers will find at least one example that has stuck around in the everychanging English language. The five examples of passages placed between paragraphs 3 and 4 were particularly good in showing the excessive and vague nature of high language. As I read those passages outloud, I still found myself confused and tuned out.
      The juxtaposition of Orwell's language with his example passages provided a good comparison and contrast for language; while I could not comprehend some of the examples, I definitely got Orwell's point. Another excellent comparison and contrast was between the verse from Ecclesiastes and Orwell's modern interpretation of it (par. 9-10).
      Orwell also uses classification to show the many ways the language has changed. He divides the essay into these topics: Dying Metaphors, Operators or Verbal False Links, Prententious Diction, and Meaningless Diction. My favorite was "Prententious Diction." I know I have been guilty of trying to use fancy jargon, and almost everyone has. People use prententious diction to try to sound smarter, but it really just makes everything harder to understand. No one wants to read an essay while stopping to grab the dictionary every other sentence. Just talk normal and tell the truth; it makes it easier for all of us.