Control and Destroy

In Mikhail Bahktin’s  “Discourse in the Novel,” he discusses how the language used in novels can provoke social discourse (Bahktin 259-61). Though this was argued to describe how language in a novel can create the characterization, the psychological backgrounds, the setting, the politics, behaviors, ethnicities, etc., that is utilized to compose a fictional setting, this concept truly allows readers to better understand the article “The Rhetoric of Hitler’s Battle” by Kenneth Burke.

In the article, Burke identifies how Hitler was a skilled and persuasive orator. How he didn’t trick or create a “cult” of anti-Semitic mass murderers, but how he reasoned and rationalized and defended the “Aryan race” against the Jewish community (Burke 199). As Bahktin mentioned, “language usage can represent views that are ‘common’ to particular social spheres or ideologies” and actually, Hitler pinpointed these views of his German social spheres quite successfully (Bahktin 301).  He led a campaign that was based on “humility, love, and peace,” something that at the most basic core is a “common” positive concept however, he injected this with the other “common” ideology that religion can always be exploited and used as a tool to motivate and control (historically that is) (Burke 195-199).

Through the understanding of Hitler’s rhetoric, it is clear that language is a medium with words that carry with them their own histories, previous, and potential significations (Shuster 597). The language used by Hitler and the words that are attributed to his rhetoric, such as “Aryan love” and “Nazis” will always be understood and relative to that time in history. World War II and Nazi Germany will always be associated with specific a language – German- and the relationship between these words and the history will hopefully deter future atrocities. Remembering the language and understanding the language, encourages others to be able to recognize when language is being used to control and destroy.