George Orwell's Response

    In the article written by George Orwell, "Politics and English Language" he objects to 'ready-made phrases" and "mixed metaphors". The reason he objects to these ready-made phrases is because when you use repeated phrases they aren't your own ideas. When you are using phrases someone has already made you aren't using it to fit your writing. Your just substituting something that seems to fit. Also, when you use something that is repeated off someone else, you don't process the full meaning. You become distant from what you are actually saying and it loses that meaning. It starts to become something you just say but don't actually process, which then causes it to have very little significance to you and to others. And when using mixed metaphors he believes it is best to avoid them. He believes that when it comes to metaphors people use them in the wrong way. He thinks that they have lost all their meaning and power because people use them when they don't want to make phrases themselves. This connects with his opinions on the ready-made phrases because that is basically what they are. They are phrases that people have made to put power and emphasis into their writing but, they wind up being used by people who don't comprehend their full meaning and use them to fill in space. So when they are used by people who don't understand them, just like ready-made phrases, they begin to lose their significance and their true meaning.

Politics and the English Language