Politics and English Language by George Orwell, Essay Example

The main thesis of “Politics and English Language” by George Orwell is that the contemporary writing of Orwell’s day, 1946, is severely flawed. Orwell says this writing originated many years before during a time when legal and business language needed to hide the truth, and did so through use of unnecessary filler words and excessive punctuation to mislead readers. Orwell goes on to argue that this technique was then adopted as habit by many literary writers who didn’t understand the origin of the style and didn’t realize how difficult it was making it for them to get their point across. An example of this can be seen in the class text, in the short story by Kate Chopin “Desiree.” In this story the author uses much of the same language Orwell condemns. An example is when the author writes, “It was no wonder, when she stood one day against the stone pillar in whose shadow she had lain asleep, eighteen years before, that Armand Aubigny riding by and seeing her there, had fallen in love with her.” Both uses of the word ‘had’ and the sentence could use active verbs instead of passive. This story was written 50 years before Orwell’s “Politic and English Language,” but it is an example of the passive verbs and indirect implied sentences that were common of the day and which led Orwell to write his passionate piece.