"Politics and the English Language" Question Response

Question: How effective is Orwell's analogy of the cause and effect of alcohol abuse to the demise of language?

Orwell's analogy is very effective because it shows the the truth of human nature and its relation with the English language. The first part of the analogy starts with Orwell stating, "A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure..." is similar to the way people try to comfort themselves. When we are feeling down, we tend to do things that make us feel better to escape the pain. Thus, we do what Orwell states as, "...and then fail all the more completely because he drinks." Orwell is telling us that we are only bringing our downfall more because we are only hiding from our failures. If we don't accept our failures, then they will always be present. This is like the English language because in our minds we think this false sense of comfort is right. As a result, in our minds we change the meaning of words to a meaning we are okay with. Since we constantly do change meanings, we accept these new meanings, which changes the English language.