Thoughts Strangled by Language

Thoughts Strangled By Language If asked where you were at this moment in time, would you be able to communicate in detail of your surroundings, or simply answer with “here”? Czeslaw Milosz presents the intentions and fears of originality in the use of communication through language in his essay My Intention. The communication of self expression is restricted by the limits of language, authoring the choice between silencing the amazement of being “here” or risking the opportunity to be misunderstood. The impossible, in Milosz’s term, is the ability to fully convey oneself through language. The impossible is “the ability to communicate.. full amazement at ‘being here’ in one unattainable sentence which would simultaneously transmit the smell and texture of my skin, everything stored.. memory”(1). It is impossible to “communicate.. full amazement” as it is impossible to reveal concise thoughts and memories through language alone. Language limits us as individuals because of the limitation of words in which we can use in describing our intentions. George Orwell develops this subject in 1984 by presenting a government whom is currently injecting a new language into its society. This new language completely removes words from existence to further restrict its society’s members from speaking, or even thinking, in a way that could harm the power of the government. Self expression could be considered dead to a society where language is used as a tool of manipulation rather than communication. Even in our society language can not totally communicate individual thoughts. Realizing that complete expression is mere impossible creates fear, the fear of being misunderstood. This fear causes us to not fully use language as a tool. Milosz states, “Each of us is so ashamed of his own helplessness and ignorance that he considers it appropriate to communicate only what he thinks others will understand”(1). We as humans choose to censor ourselves rather than say what consumes