When I started thinking about this article, I asked myself why am I still required to study English? Every topic seems to have a direct connection to my daily life. Science allows me to understand how the physical world works through qualitative analysis, and mathematics provides the tools needed to understand the physical world quantitatively. The social sciences give me the opportunity to look to the past to learn from the mistakes of others and understand how the social world works. Finally, a foreign language allows me to communicate in the international community and learn about world cultures. However, English seems to be the exception after middle school, most students have strong enough English proficiency to read and write technical documents, memos, and communicate with others. Therefore, what is the purpose of studying English in high school and college? In George Orwell's book 1984, we see a situation where the government uses a language in which every idea can be expressed with a single word to control the population. This population is unable to rebel because it is unable to effectively spread ideas through language. One of the major activities catalyzed by the corrupt government in 1984 is the change from the English language to “Newspeak,” a language in which, as one of the characters says, “every concept… will be expressed by exactly one word” (52). The fundamental motivation behind “Newspeak” is to remove from the English language all words that could be used to subvert or energize a population. The vocabulary they are leaving behind would be similar to our English education ending at the end of middle school. This limited vocabulary contains t...... middle of paper ...... in novels, poems and speeches to see how some of the greatest minds have argued their points to create arguments our own. Furthermore, the reason Big Brother was able to remain in power was because the people did not have the tools necessary to analyze the errors in his arguments and, without tools to create an argument against him, they had no method of rebellion. On the other hand, we witness rebellions every day, editorials are often written about those in power, and the constant (if sometimes boring) discourse keeps the vast majority of the United States informed and forces us to consider the arguments presented by leaders in a new perspective. light. Therefore, we continue to take English in high school and college to understand the various topics presented to us every day, and as we saw in 1984, a weak education can lead to the subjugation of an entire nation.