Week 6 Assignment- Jesus Medina

Orwell’s thesis talks about how the english language has become inaccurate and ugly over time. He makes some very important points to prove this thesis. One important point he makes is that modern authors use longer strips of words to make a statement that has already been said by someone else. This is something that causes the writing piece to be “ugly”. One quote from the essay that stood out to me is when Orwell said “If you use ready-made phrases, you not only don’t have to hunt about for the words; you also don’t have to bother with the rhythms of your sentences, since these phrases are generally so arranged as to be more or less euphonious”. In this quote, Orwell explains the reason as to why authors use these longer strips of words; it is to make it easier and faster for them to finish their writing piece. It is less work for them to do since they don’t have to make up their own statement. This quote stood out to me because it is something I see in many writing pieces. I myself tend to do it myself without realizing it. One category of language that disturbs Orwell is dead metaphors. Dead metaphors is a figure of speech that has lost its meaning due to repetitive and popular usage. One of the many examples Orwell gives about dead metaphors is “play into the hands of”. I see many examples of this today where I see the same metaphor over and over again. I do this with my own writing at times when I want to write a metaphor but can’t come up with one myself. I find his critique to be very valid because it can get annoying when you want to look for a creative writing piece but you can’t because it is just similar to the one you read last time. A writing piece sort of loses meaning when it is not original and authentic. A contemporary example of a use of language that has been the subject of misunderstanding is the phrase “black lives matter”. Mostly people who are non-black misinterpret this phrase and think that it means that only black lives matter and counter it by saying all lives matter. When in reality the phrase black lives matter is to end white supremacy and stop the oppression and discrimination black people go through.