Things Are Looking Doubleplusungood (Vernacular)

“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words….Take ‘good,’ for instance. If you have a word like ‘good,’ what need is there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well—better, because it’s an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of ‘good,’ what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like ‘excellent’ and ‘splendid’ and all the rest of them? ‘Plusgood’ covers the meaning, or ‘doubleplusgood’ if you want something stronger still…In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words—in reality, only one word. Don’t you see the beauty of that, Winston?”

--p 51

This rather frustrating passage summarizes the entire concept behind Ingsoc’s vernacular, known as Newspeak. The interesting aspect of Orwell’s usage of a vernacular is that not only does he use it, but he explains it. If Orwell had simply written in the vernacular, including words such as “ungood” and “doubleplusgood”, the reader would infer that Big Brother has dumbed down society, creating a stupid—and almost illiterate of sorts—mass of citizens to obey them. By explaining why citizens speak in Newspeak, however, Orwell sends an even more frightening message. Big Brother has created Newspeak not to make it easier to express ideas, but actually to make it harder. By limiting people’s power of expression, Big Brother limits their power to think independently. The whole point of an expanding language is to accommodate for new ideas, opinions, and beliefs. By shrinking the language, Big Brother slowly but surely inhibits these ideas and opinions, getting a firmer grip on the minds of its subjects over time. Orwell explains his vernacular to emphasize the implications of “benevolent control.”

Le Francais et l'Espagnol? O la Vache! (Vernacular)

“‘Oh, yes. They’ve never seen a desencajonada.’

… ‘Your friend, is he aficionado, too? …Yes?’ Montoya politely disbelieved. ‘But he’s not aficionado like you.’

…Aficion means passion. An aficionado is one who is passionate about the bull-fights.”

-The Sun Also Rises, p 136

One observation which I made earlier in the novel and forgot to mention before was the use of vernacular throughout the book. When Jake & Co. were in Paris, Hemingway made sure to include several French words and phrases to give authenticity to his writing. Now that the characters are in Spain, Hemingway does the same with Spanish words. Hemingway includes the vernacular for a few reasons. Throughout the novel, the characters actually speak very little English; while in France, they spend the majority of the time speaking French, and while in Spain, those who know Spanish use it almost constantly.

Obviously, if Hemingway had opted to write the dialogue in the actual language which he intended his characters to be speaking, his novel would not have appealed to American readers nearly as much as it did. However, by including bits of the vernacular within his writing, Hemingway reminds the reader of his original intent to write his characters as culturally suave. Yet the vernacular also loans an authenticity to the story, indicating that the author is not simply taking an American tale and placing it in Europe, but is actually writing a Europeanized story.