WHY I WRITE-GEORGE ORWELL, Analysis

WHY I WRITE BY GEORGE ORWELL

“Why I write” is an essay by the renowned writer and essayist George Orwell, as the title of the essay suggests, it is an explanatory essay which focuses on the writer himself and his motives for writing, the essay is written in a plain and simple style and lacks any strong rhetorical devices or literary techniques.  However the essay has a grasping effect on the readers as it lays down not only the  summary of Orwell’s writing career but also highlights some important motives that exist in almost all the writers.

Orwell begins his essay by stating that since a very young age, he knew that he wanted to be a writer, but then in his late adolescence he gave up on this idea but nonetheless he says, “I tried to abandon this idea but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I would have settle down and write books” so even when certain circumstances in his life forced him to give up on the idea of writing, he knew that there was an innate part of him, which resided deep within his soul and that part would never feel satisfied until Orwell became a writer. In this regard it can be said that he was born with the capability to write or he was a natural born writer.  Orwell then lays down some information stating that he was a middle child, usually the eldest child in the family gets a lot protocol as the first child is the “apple of the eye” of the parents, the same goes for the youngest child, he also receives a lot of attention and care, as to the middle child, he is often neglected, such was the case with Orwell as he says, “for this and for other reasons I was somewhat lonely and I soon developed disagreeable mannerisms…..”  what transpired as a result of that loneliness was Orwell’s odd behaviour, he developed an imaginary world, in which he would create the most perfect situations and thus perform his catharsis, he would hold conversations with imaginary friends and in this way he found a “escape” from the harsh reality of his life, a reality in which “he barely saw his father”.  “I had the lonely child’s habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons” thereby since a young age Orwell had an extraordinarily powerful and well-defined imagination; this feeling of being “isolated and undervalued” was a sort of an advantage for Orwell, because it made him create a fantasia or an imaginary world and its very essential for a good writer to be an owner of a strong imagination.

He developed an ability of “facing unpleasant facts” by escaping in to his imaginary world, nonetheless he goes on to mention that during his early years he was not able to produce much writing, “nevertheless the volume of seriously intended writing that I produced throughout my childhood would not amount to half a dozen pages” this is strange since he carried an enormously strong imagination during that period but it also can be said that since he was always “undervalued” and was not much cared after, thereby his self-esteem was pretty much deflated and that was perhaps the reason why he could not pluck up the courage to produce much.  Then Orwell mentions how he wrote “bad and usually unfinished nature poems” this indicates that he had a love for nature and natural things since his early years, indicating that he had a non-violent demeanour. Then in his adolescence, he engaged in literary activities to keep his talent polished, but then again he did not any drive any satisfaction from doing that literary work, whether it was working for the school magazines or writing other entries  as his job, he could not connect with what he was doing, it was as if his heart was not into it, “these magazines were the most pitiful burlesque stuff you could imagine and I took far less trouble with them then I now would with the cheapest journalism”, one of the reasons why he did not cherish these literary activities was probably because he was still in search of his true purpose of writing, and these activities could not provide a contentment to his heart that comes from writing with your soul. We see Orwell revolutionizing his character as he formed a habit of “making up of a continuous story, a sort of diary existing only in my mind” this kind of thing evolves within writers at a young age, and it matures as their years progress as Orwell later mentions that during his early years, he was a bit “narcissistic”, meaning this in a metaphorical way, that he was obsessed with himself, he would imagine himself as a great hero or “robin hood” on the verge of saving the world, but then he mentions that, “but quite soon my story ceased to be narcissistic in a crude way and became more and more a mere description of what I was doing and the things I saw” so in way Orwell shows how he was transforming into an adult, how he was becoming mature and how his nature was becoming inclined towards the things around him, the people, the colours, the sounds, the smell, the environment, how all of a sudden, his “obsession with himself” vanished, only to be replaced with a more refined and broader perception, the example of his early writings that he depicts, “he pushed the door open and entered the room, a yellow beam of sunlight, filtering through the muslin curtains…..” this is a kind of an aesthetic writing, he has carefully chosen words to display a scene, thus in here we know that this sense of “aesthetic enthusiasm” had developed in him in his adolescence. But Orwell again remarks that, “Although I had to search and did search for the right words….”  In here he means that he was still looking for a more definite purpose for writing.

Orwell’s inclination towards the beauty of writing comes from his discovery of that artistic writing that poems contain, he says, “….I suddenly discovered the joy of mere words” how the words sounded and how they left a mesmerizing effect on the reader thus rendering him or her in to a trance, but then Orwell says that those lines from “paradise lost” which “sent shivers down his spine” no longer affect him any more, it seems as though he has “outgrown” them, now their beauty does not matter because now Orwell has discovered another realm to true purposeful writing.  But as to what he wanted to write in those early years he clearly mentions, “…..naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes and also full of purple passages…..”  so he says that his motives for writing were restricted to “writing just for the sake of writing” meaning writing something that looks beautiful , captivating, enthralling with “purple passages”, writing that leaves the readers awestruck.

Orwell goes on to say, “I give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer’s motives without knowing something of his early development”, here he justifies his essay style, stating that all the information related to his background is indeed essential as it allows the readers to fully grasp the social, psychological, emotional, cultural, environmental effects that the writer underwent in his early years, also, the first “five years” are extremely crucial as they determine the whole personality of a person.

He says that, “…..in tumultuous revolutionary ages like our own….” This again implies that ages which have a revolutionary aspect to them whether it be related to an ideology, a political movement or a social reformation, it leaves a deeper impact on people thus enabling them to become more sensitive with regards to their environment.  With regards to his childhood, Orwell states that, “….he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape….”  Meaning that the writer’s childhood, his upbringing, his environment, his family, his homeland, all of that has left an indelible mark on him, he has absorbed so much in his upbringing that he will never able to get it out of him, it has become a part of his nature, “the emotional attitude” becomes innate in the writer, thus each writer develops a particular perception and understanding of his attitude that always comes to life when he or she sets down to write, meaning that whatever he has grasped in his early years, that attitude will remain with him for a lifetime, however that attitude might become more refined and mature but its base will always be the same.  But then Orwell says that the writer must learn to discipline his mind, meaning he should not delve into deep flashbulb memories of his tragic past, otherwise he might not become a versatile writer, “its his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting struck at some immature stage or perverse mood, but if he escapes from his early influences altogether he will have killed his impulse to write”, so it’s good to get matured but it’s  also important to retain your natural self and your early memories in order to keep the instinct for writing alive within you.

Orwell’s essay is a masterpiece as it clearly defines the four motives of writing, according to Orwell, “there are four great motives for writing….. They exist in different degrees in every writer…..”

The first motive is sheer egoism: this inner urge and desire to seem “clever”, to be famous and to be well known, to get recognition and appreciation, to become popular and famous, to leave your golden footprint in the history of the world, meaning to be “remembered after death, “to be talked about”, this motives exists in all human beings, irrespective of what profession they carry, it is a natural motive as it is a desire of human beings to make their self-esteem and ego more well-developed. But then Orwell remarks that “the great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish”, in here he says that although that “narcissistic”  urge to again fame and reputation resides within human beings but nonetheless majority of the gifted individuals are not selfish, this part is ironic, for how can one expect a self-loving, attention-seeking individual to be self-less?  Isn’t the yearning to gain fame a selfish yearning? But Then Orwell remarks that when one matures, one tends to give up one’s own desires and “live chiefly for others”, Orwell remarks that “serious writers….. Are on the whole lot more vain and self-centered than journalists” here Orwell means that journalists tend to be more humanitarian as they are constantly covering up global social, political, economic issues, they are more inclined to serve humans than writers, for writers, its  different, the self-centeredness is more evident in their personalities.

The second motive is that of aesthetic enthusiasm, the joy of writing, “perception of beauty in the external world….. Pleasure in the impact of sound over one another…. desire to share what one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed….” This is called writing because you love writing, because you love the world, its beauty, its colors, the sounds, the skies, the moon and the clouds, you love to share your emotions, you love to appreciate the beauty in the association of words, in other words, you have  a more “comprehensive soul”, you grasp the beauty within the smallest of the things, and thus you enjoy the art of writing about such things, you want others to know what effect words can have on one’s soul.

The third motives is the historical impulse, this is the “desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for posterity” , you desire to find out the truth about things, to record something important that has occurred in the world, something that has changed everything, something that must be recorded for future generations to come, for your descendants to read and study, history is also in the present, with each passing moment everything is becoming a part of history.

The fourth motive is the political impulse: “desire to push the world in a certain direction….” This impulse means that the writer writes to serve an ideology, a philosophy, a political manifesto or a social revolutionary group, it does not matter whether the writers is affiliated with politics or not, he should be writing to make the world go “in a certain direction” meaning to change the system of the world, to bring about social, political justice to the people of the world, to write in order to serve an ideology that believes in the betterment of the society as a whole, to let people see the darkness of the system they live in, to create mass awareness, thus rendering people to take initiative to serve the world in one or another.  “the opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is in itself a political attitude” meaning that this belief that art and politics are separate entities is a political belief because it makes you accept a certain idea, it makes you to separate arts from politics and see the two differently.

After describing he says, “….how they must war against one another….” Meaning how one impulse becomes stronger at times while the other becomes weaker, how they constantly oscillate “from person to person and from time to time…..” they are not always  present in a precise and a balanced proportion, they keep varying according to circumstances,  Orwell then states, ….” I am a person in whom the first three motives would outweigh the fourth….” This is ironic since we know that Orwell usually wrote with a strong political purpose.

Then Orwell relates, “in a peaceful age I  might have written ornate or merely descriptive books and might have remained unaware of my political loyalties”, in here he illustrates how the war-torn age had an effect on him, if he had been living in peaceful times, he would not have discovered his political purpose and would have gone on to write books with aesthetic considerations only, for example, you cannot truly sympathize with the victims of a war until and unless you have not witnessed a war in your own land. Then Orwell goes on to relate how he entered an “unsuitable profession” meaning that although he wanted to be a writer but certain circumstances forced him to become a member of the “imperial police in Burma”, he says he underwent, “a sense of failure” this again shows how he was not satisfied with what he was doing, he felt like he belonged somewhere else. The development of Orwell’s political purpose was a result of the experiences he had, like he says, “this increased my natural hatred of authority and made me fully aware of the existence of working classes…..understanding of the nature of imperialism…..” in here he says how his experiences with the police force in Burma made him see how the authoritarian rule was unjust, how the capitalist system ruins the lives of the “working classes” and how people were deprived of their human rights as they became imperialized. He adds, “….then came Hitler, the Spanish civil war etc….” these two further events in that course of time period gave a boost to his political sense, hereby he began to develop a political ideology, “the Spanish civil war and other events turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood” this post Spanish civil war period seems like the deadline at which Orwell’s political ideology became affixed, after that he knew what he wanted to write about, he was completely clear about his political purpose as he says, “….has been written directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism”…. Meaning that he a was follower of a democratic socialist ideology and an opponent of totalitarianism, by totalitarian, he means that he was against the Nazis, the fascists. Orwell believes that living under such times it’s impossible for a person not feel some sort of urge to write against such regimes, “….it seems to me nonsense…. To think that one can avoid writing of such subjects…..” thereby it is imperative that anyone who has even an iota worth of humanity in him would care to write about such subjects. “And the more one is conscious of one’s political bias, the more chances one has of acting politically without sacrificing one’s aesthetic and intellectual integrity” here Orwell emphasizes his viewpoint that it’s important to become aware of your political loyalties, they make you act politically, but in the process of acting politically one must not give up on one’s aesthetic sense or one’s love of beauty and life.

Orwell then outlines how it’s important for him to merge together aesthetic enthusiasm and political motive, he always has an initial intention of writing with political purpose,”……there is some lie I want to expose….some fact I want to draw attention to…..but I could not do the work of writing a book…. If it were not an aesthetic experience” so for him its important to intend to write with a political purpose in mind, to serve a cause, to bring about a change but it should be in such a way it must have beautiful edge to it, a work of art, for Orwell its essential not to give up on your childhood experiences and not give up appreciating the beauty of the world around you, keep alive within yourself the desire to bring about change but in an artistic manner….”to take pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information” such information would not serve a political purpose but for Orwell it’s important not to let go of it. But Orwell also states how the purposes “war against one another” he gives an example of his book “homage to Catalonia” which had a complete chapter on journalistic entries, in here Orwell wanted to expose a truth and for him the exposing of the truth was far more important than the “aesthetic enthusiasm” this shows how the motive of political purpose was greater in Orwell than other motives.  He says that in his late years he has started writing…..”Less picturesquely and more exactly” this again gives an evidence of his strong political motive. “I have found that by the time you have perfected any style of writing you have almost outgrown it….” In here he means that you keep maturing and your styles of writing keep evolving with the course of time.  Orwell’s book “animal farm” was a book In which he “fused political purpose with artistic purpose”

“….every book is a failure….” This statement of Orwell is ironic as not all works of writers are a failure on the other hand he is saying it in a metaphorical manner that books generally are a failure because the purpose for which they are written usually remain unfulfilled, for example a book written in favour of democratic socialism cannot necessarily bring about a socialist revolution.

“…..my motives in writing were wholly public spirited”, meaning that he always wrote to serve the public.

“All writers are vain, selfish and lazy and at the bottom of their motives their lies a mystery”, this line is again ironic as not all the writers carry such traits, but on the other hand he uses this in a figurative manner to say that writers on the surface may seem quite humanitarian but deep down inside they are selfish and they live to serve their own ends, they are so deeply interwoven in themselves that they remain carefree of their environment, not connecting with people and not paying attention to the problems of the people, and again a writer tends to be “lazy” as writing is a difficult job, he uses a simile  and metaphor to explain, “writing a book Is a horrible exhausting struggle like a long bout of some painful illness….one would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some inner demon whom one can neither resist nor understand” so it’s natural for a writer to be “lazy” as it’s hard for him to write, furthermore the “inner demon” (the urge to write) is a “mysterious thing” it’s impossible to quite understand what drives one to write, what drives one to say anything, but the “inner demon” is also quite uncontrollable and it keeps making you to write again and again.

Lastly he mentions how writing really is, what you must do to write well“….efface one’s own personality….” You can only write well if you keep your natural self-alive, he uses another simile, “good prose is like a windowpane….” Meaning you can see through it, you can grasp its meaning.

“I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest but I know which ones deserve to be followed” this is again ironic as he previously does mention which motives are the strongest, in a way, he is clarifying a viewpoint that he knows what motives must be followed meaning that only some should be followed and not all, or that some motives should be followed more than the others.

“And looking back thorough my books…. I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning……humbug generally”

Here he shows clearly how important the political purpose is to him, and how books are “lifeless” and “humbug” without any political purpose.

Anam S.Ahmed