In Orwell's text "Politics and the English Language", he discusses dying metaphors and how language is incorrectly used in politics. A technique that he seems to use is satire. Satire is the use of humor, irony or exaggeration to expose one's position on a topic. In class, we labeled several paragraphs as paragraphs 1 to 5. In paragraph 1, he states "A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance toward turning himself into a machine." In my opinion, this is ironic and humorous. This is ironic because one would expect a politician to be unique in their wording. According to Orwell, however, this is not the case. This is also humorous because he ridicules officials that just "copy each other." He indirectly states that they have no sense of creativity; if they did, then they would not have to be copying each other. He says "The appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved." This suggests that politicians tend to say what they think might impress their audience. This can be done through using sophisticated wording. The use of satire is effective in his piece because it allows the reader to connect with him.
Orwell also mentions the use of dying metaphors. They are cliches. At times, cliches are used out of context and end up changing the meaning of a phrase. A text to world connection can be made with dying metaphors. In today's day, people tend to say "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less." This is an example of a dying metaphor because it has been misused so often that the wrong form seems to now be the correct form. Another text to world connection can be made. Orwell states that "language merely reflects existing social situations." This is true. Today, we don't talk like how people did in the 1900s. We often talk like how those around is talk. We are influenced by our families, friends and what we see online.
