As William Lutz defines the types of doublespeak in his essay, it is clear that Squealer uses doublespeak to manipulate the animals in Orwell’s book, Animal Farm. More specifically, Squealer extensively uses two kinds of doublespeak, euphemism and inflated language. Euphemism is when an unpleasant word is replaced with a positive word to avoid “mentioning a painful reality” (Lutz 294) to an audience. Squealer uses euphemism when he needs to tell the animals about the cut backs in food. For example, Squealer knows that there is a food shortage, yet he tells the animals that “it had been necessary to make a readjustment” of the animals proportions (Orwell 115). Squealer purposely replaces the unpleasant word, reduction, and its synonym, with “readjustment” to avoid the reality of the situation, and manipulate the animals into thinking that the “readjustment” is an improvement when in fact it is not. The other type of doublespeak Squealer uses to manipulate the animals is inflated language. Inflated language makes “the ordinary seem extraordinary”, or in this case, makes the pigs seem extraordinary (Lutz 297). For example, Squealer always describes Animal Farm’s leader, Napoleon, as someone who is greater then the average animal. He uses phrases such as “Father of All Animals” (99) and “Comrade Napoleon” (102) in just references to his name. In addition, Squealer tells the animals how the pigs are naturally born with more intellect then the rest of the animals and thereby are of greater importance which justifies their needs for “milk and apples” (52) for nutrition, and sleeping in the farm house to rest their brains. In other words, Squealer uses inflated language to manipulate the animals into thinking the pigs are of a higher importance so that the animals do not question the pigs’ actions. Nonetheless, it is apparent that Squealer uses doublespeak to manipulate the animals in Orwell’s book, Animal Farm.
Works Cited
Lutz, William. Doublespeak.
Orwell,...