What Did Orwell Think about the English Language?

Abstract

FOR SOME TIME, it has been obvious that composition teachers are thinking differently about George Orwell than they used to. One senses, when his name comes up at professional meetings, that many of us who teach writing have acquired a few doubts about his valueparticularly as an authority on the misuse of English. Yet he still lurks in our minds-not to mention in our composition readers-as a formidable presence: a comment about bad is more likely to invoke Orwell than any number of witty Edwin Newlnans. But do we know what he really thought about the language? and The English Language is often mentioned but seldom thoroughly analyzed. And what of his other remarks on English, made in novels (particularly in Nineteen Eighty-Four) and journalistic pieces? Two recent articles discuss the famous Politics essay, ignoring most of his other relevant statements on language.' And both articles distort (in varying degrees) his consistently held views on the relationships between language, politics, and people. Without arguing, in any final sense, whether George Orwell was right or wrong in his views on English, let me outline what those views appear to be. I will stress his most extended fictional