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How would you summarize the afterword and appendix of 1984 by George Orwell?

In the appendix of 1984, Orwell outlines the "The Principles of Newspeak" as a means of providing the reader with a better understanding of its construction and purpose.


Firstly, Orwell notes that Newspeak is the official language of Oceania and is "founded on the English language." At the time of writing, however, Oldspeak (the former language of England) remained in widespread use and there did not exist a single person who used Newspeak as...

In the appendix of 1984, Orwell outlines the "The Principles of Newspeak" as a means of providing the reader with a better understanding of its construction and purpose.


Firstly, Orwell notes that Newspeak is the official language of Oceania and is "founded on the English language." At the time of writing, however, Oldspeak (the former language of England) remained in widespread use and there did not exist a single person who used Newspeak as the only means of communicating. Newspeak is, therefore, a work in progress with an estimated completion date of 2050.


For Orwell, the purpose of Newspeak can be summarised in the following sentence:



(Newspeak) had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc.



In other words, the purpose of Newspeak is to limit the range of thought, so that thoughtcrime becomes (theoretically) impossible and people can only express the Party's world-view and values. 


Next, Orwell explains the construction of Newspeak vocabulary. There are, he explains, three classes of words which can be summarised as follows:


  1. "A" words consists of the words needed for "the business of everyday life," like eating and drinking and working. Examples of "A" words include "SPEEDFUL" which means rapid.

  2. "B" words are the words specifically created for "political purposes," like "GOODTHINK" which means 'orthodoxy'.

  3. "C" words are "scientific and technical" terms.

Finally, Orwell informs us that the translation of older works of literature, like those of Dickens and Milton, are in progress. But, once translated, the original text and all copies will be destroyed. This is symbolic of the Party's ultimate purpose: to rewrite history and to mould individual thought so that only the Party and its values remain.

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