Politics and English Language - Short summary

This is a short summary and analysis on George Orwell’s master prose piece POLITICS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE. This piece is first published in 1946, Horizon Journal. He explains how the language should be use regarding writing.

He opens his masterpiece by saying, “The great enemy of language is insincerity”. Insincerity in writing leads to destruction of work. This leads to decline and fall of a language. Insincerity in language leads to foolish thoughts. The foolish thought in language means unclean use of language. He compares unclean usage as the language of drunkard man.

He gives some examples to prove the importance of language. Mrs. Cecily Vaughan, headmistress gave a translating work from Bible. According to the work every students must translate a passage from King James’ Bible. After the translation students realized their poor English and understood the importance of clarity.

Walter Christie, the follower of Orwell preached the values of simplicity, honesty and avoidance of verbiage in a language. Later he was frequently mentioned in Orwell’s work.

The author listed out the six rules for the standard writing regarding English language:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or any other figures of speech.

2. Never use long word where short ones do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word, cut it out.

4. Use only active voice.

5. Never use foreign words, scientific words or jargon.

6. Breaking of any rules which mentioned above is leads to barbarous writing.

There is small controversy in his point. The first point is not to use any figures of speech. In fact the figure of speech adds some beauty to poems etc. He says that not to write about false things and imaginations. For Literature falseness and extreme imaginations are vital one. If one avoids those things how could be a work as work.