Can you Shake Off Rust?
A Trump Speech Analyzed
George Orwell was one of the greatest writers ever. He is most famous for his books “Animal Farm” and “1984,” but not many people know about his fine essays and the incredible points that he makes.
In his most influential essay ever: “Politics and the English Language,” Orwell demonstrates how humans lose track of language and prefer not to give as much thought when speaking or writing. In particular, Orwell is irritated by the writer’s and speaker’s use of “dead metaphors.”
Orwell claims that metaphors are considered “dead” when they “have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.” For example, the phrase “spitting image” is used to mean something or someone is a close resemblance to something or someone else. However, this was originally “spit and image,” and referred to the act of creating a clay model or sculpture that resembles something closely. There are many other examples of metaphors being used today that people have forgotten the meaning of but still use. This is easily seen in politician’s speeches today.
It is difficult to be skilled at delivering a speech. Many politicians know this and will try to be as efficient as possible in conveying their message. Also, they want to use imagery to captivate the audience and make them interested in the presentation. However, some of these metaphors are written lazily, resulting in simple metaphors or cliches that are easy to think of and do not take much creativity to construct. These careless phrases detract from the effect that they could have on the audience if they were original because the listeners are more likely to dismiss it as they have already heard it before, while they would give more thought to a new figure of speech.
Our new president, Donald Trump, has been giving many speeches. One of his most recent was delivered in April 2016 and included the phrase “It’s time to shake the rust off America’s foreign policy.” The more common phrase is to “shake the dust off” of something, meaning that an idea or object is being used again after a while of disuse. This phrase is typically thought of as a gentle transition into the spotlight again. However, by substituting rust into the saying, Trump changes the meaning completely. He implies that he will have to spend a lot of time and effort and many resources to reintroduce the foreign policy. This is because rust is chemically bonded to the surface of something, meaning that it is exceedingly difficult to remove it, and impossible to do so by shaking it. Trump likely means something else.
To “shake the dust off” of something means to bring it back into use. It is very easy to do. For example, if Trump wanted to “shake the dust off” of the foreign policy, all he would need to do is reintroduce it to fellow politicians or the public.
By confusing the metaphor, Trump himself forgets the origin of the phrase, making it non-sensical. In addition, the audience can also be puzzled by the use of the new saying. This can cause them to lose track of the origin the same way that Trump did, and believe that Trump is properly using a metaphor. However, the mixed-up expression can also cause the audience to fail to interpret what Trump is planning to do. This leads to the distorting of the idea itself. Trump has a lot of influence, especially because he is talking to a lot of people, so others that hear a misused metaphor may repeat it, causing many people, especially in the future, to forget the true history of the phrase, and use it in their speech as a simple escape from having to think of their own figure of speech.
