1984 Blog Post #2

Syme told Winston, "We're getting the language into its final shape- the shape it's going to have when nobody speaks anything else."(Orwell, 50) Syme looks forward into destroying "oldspeak". He wants everybody to speak "newspeak". Syme's job erases words from "oldspeak". He shortens the vocabulary of the new language each year. The Party shortening the vocabulary each year sounds rough. The future contains a world where speech becomes limited. People use words to communicate. If Syme erases the essential words from "oldspeak" to form "newspeak", communication will cease to exist. I cannot imagine living in a world where "plusgood" or "ungood" are words to replace better or worse. People require diversity in words to interact differently. I see why the Party benefits from Syme deleting words. People lose all freedom to act differently by doing so.

Winston questions himself, "Was he, then, alone in the possession of a memory?" (Orwell, 59) Winston fears to be the only person who remembers the chocolate ration going down. Everybody else accepted that Big Brother raised the chocolate ration. Winston knows that remembering is a thought crime. The Party vaporizes anyone guilty of a thought crime. It frightens me being in Winston's place. I dislike how the Party forces everyone to forget about the past. No one should fear remembering. Humans' natural function is remembering the past. I'd feel stripped of my freedom if I am not allowed to use a natural function of mine. It would be scary for me if everyone around me accepted lies as truth. I would feel alone and alert with my surrounding. No one is a friend in Winston’s world.