WHY I WRITE

George Orwell
SUMMARY No.1
Orwell begins by observing that he knew he should be a writer from a very young age.
Although in early adulthood he tried to ‘abandon’ the idea, he knew it was his true calling
and that he would eventually ‘settle down and write books’.
He tells us that he was a lonely child who would make up stories and hold conversations
with imaginary people, and that his own desire to write is linked to this childhood
loneliness. During the First World War, when Orwell was still a child, he had two poems
published in the local newspaper, and that was the beginning of his publishing career.
In his youth, he continued to think like a writer, making up a ‘continuous “story” about
myself’, but never writing it down. When he was in his twenties, he had ambitions of
writing ‘enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions
and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which words were used partly
for the sake of their sound’. Orwell calls his first novel, Burmese Days (1934), this kind
of book. Orwell then outlines what he sees as four chief motives for anyone becoming a
writer: 1) egoism; 2) aesthetic enthusiasm; 3) historical impulse; and 4) political purpose.
Egoism is the desire to be thought clever, be talked about when alive, and remembered
after death. Aesthetic enthusiasm is the perception of beauty in the world around the
writer, as well as the beauty of language. The historical impulse is a desire to see things
as they are and present the facts to readers. Political purpose is the urge to change
people’s views of the kind of society they want to live in. This last one is a matter of
degree, because Orwell argues that every writer adopts some kind of political position:
‘Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should
have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.’ Perhaps surprisingly given
he is principally known for ‘political’ writing, Orwell confides that by nature he is
someone for whom the first three motives would usually outweigh the fourth. But when
the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Orwell knew where he stood. As he famously
declares: ‘Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written,
directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand
it.’ Orwell concludes ‘Why I Write’ by stating that in the decade since 1936 he has tried
to turn political writing ‘into an art’. Although he acknowledges that his impulse has not
been entirely public-spirited but just as egoistic and ‘vain’ as it is in most writers, he
knows that ‘one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface
one’s own personality.’ The political scene has helped Orwell to sharpen his own writing.
SUMMARY No.2
In this essay George Orwell mentions his reasons of becoming a writer. He starts by
narrating his childhood events. He was a lonely child and had the habit of making
conversations with imaginary persons. He wrote a few poems in his childhood and an
unsuccessful story. For fifteen or more years he was making a story about himself in his
mind. At the age of sixteen, he discovered the joy of mere words. Then he came to know
that he wanted to write enormous novels with unhappy endings and in which "words
were used partly for the sake of their sounds".
George Orwell believes that every writer is inspired by the events of his age. He mentions
four motives behind writing. The first motive is "sheer egoism". That is," the desire to
seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death". He says that writers share
this motive with scientists, artists, politicians, in short with the "whole top crust of
humanity’. In his view, other professionals became selfless after the age of thirty but
writers remain self-centered till the end.
The second reason for writing is "aesthetic consideration", which means the joy achieved
from the right arrangement and sounds of words. He believes that this motive is not very
strong in case of most of the writers, still, even minor writers enjoy the beauty of words.
According to him the third motive for writing is "historical impulse" that is, the desire to
know and convey truth. The fourth reason for writing is "political purpose", "the desire to
push the world in a certain direction" and to change the people's idea of society.
He further says that these four motives fluctuate from person to person and time to time.
He believes that for him the political purpose is the least important but unfortunately his
era and his circumstances has forced him to adopt political approach much against his
will. He shares his poem written at the time of Spanish civil war in which he expresses
his dilemma of being a part of the present age. "I wasn't born for an age like this". He
decides to write against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism after some
disturbing political events. At the same time, he also tries to keep up with the aesthetic
element in which he is occasionally unsuccessful.
At the end of his essay, George Orwell describes the experience of writing a book as a
"horrible, exhausting struggle like a long bout of some painful illness". The writers are
forcefully passed through this experience by a "demon" which is their instinct of writing.

ANALYSIS
George Orwell writes directly and deliberately to the reader. His objective is contained in
the title "Why I Write." He is at a moment of his life where he is analyzing the question
of why he has undertaken his craft. The global context of World War II (1939–45)
influenced Orwell, and he is motivated to write in warning and protest against growing
fascism in Europe perpetuated by the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Fascism
is an authoritarian and dictatorial ideology. Orwell notes, "In a peaceful age I might have
written ornate or merely descriptive books, and might have remained almost unaware of
my political loyalties. As it is I have been forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer."
By being "forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer," Orwell means that the violent
time of unrest has required him as a writer of conscience to write against the grave wrong
being done in the world. Orwell was at the time writing short pamphlet-style books of
political thought including Fascism and Democracy which was published in 1945.
Orwell writes that he might have been an entirely different writer in a different time. His
primary motives for writing were originally sheer ego, aesthetic enthusiasm, and
historical impulse. Orwell suggests that if he had lived in "a peaceful age," he might have
written more bucolic or romantic work. However, this type of writing was unavailable to
him and was unconscionable because he lived through the turmoil that climaxed in World
War II (1939–45) and because of the ethical obligation to write about the evil in the
world. In his poem "The Happy Vicar," Orwell illustrates that he might have enjoyed a
pastoral and aesthetic writing life had his time proved more peaceful. He cites the
German dictator Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco (1892–
1975) as influences and figureheads for the reasons that Orwell famously wrote which
was to combat fascism and totalitarianism. In "Why I Write," Orwell is at a moment in
his writing life and career in which he is confident to assert not only his own motivations
but also those of his fellow writers. He writes of the four motivations that "They exist in
different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from
time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living." The four motivations are
sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose. Orwell
asserts that all writers have the universal impulse of ego and claims that "serious writers"
are more vain and self-centered than journalists. Orwell distinguishes "serious writers"
from journalists, and he can firmly place himself in both categories. This moment in the
text hits on an important distinction of the essay. Orwell is both frankly self-aware and
comfortably judgmental. He diagnoses the motives of journalists whom he implies are
more "interested in money" and serious writers who are ‘more vain’. Orwell diagnoses
himself alongside his unsentimental assessment of his comrades. This demonstrates
Orwell's candor or frank honesty. Orwell comes to a diagnosis that addresses adult
writers and illustrates the formative childhood impulse of imagination that is a necessary
part of being a writer. Childhood influences are a foundational consideration of the essay
although not among Orwell's overtly stated motivations. Orwell writes that his earliest
influences grew out of a time of feeling "isolated and undervalued" which led to a
detailed, ongoing monologue narrating his own life of which he was often the hero.
Orwell cites these inward narrations as the early sources of his practice of description and
narration. He found a story even in the mundane such as in the description, "With his
right hand in his pocket, he moved toward the window." While Orwell does not give
much weight to his early musings, he does admit to "a half dozen pages" of serious or
"seriously intended" writing. His early musings encompassed poems dictated to his
mother which were later published in the local newspaper as well as scribbling that he
describes as narcissistic. Orwell's writing evidences no shame in these egoistic or humble
beginnings. He implies that all writers must overcome the hurdle of such self-interest.
Writing itself requires self-interest. According to Orwell writing must mature into a craft
with more interest in the aesthetic and the political. Overall, Orwell represents his writing
as being compelled by the injustices of the world and as a cry for social democracy in the
face of fascism. However, Orwell makes a plea that he hopes he hasn't represented
writing as overly altruistic in nature at the end of the essay. He writes, "All writers are
vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery."
Orwell acknowledges that while the overarching concerns of his body of work are in the
service of others, these efforts are not entirely selfless. These efforts include Animal
Farm (1945) which is a cautionary tale about the dangers of communism and his final
novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). He argues that all writers want to prove something
and impress their views and their genius upon the world. After Orwell acknowledges his
self-interested motivations, he notes that his best prose has always been message-driven.
He writes that the books he wrote without "political purpose" were ultimately "lifeless
books with purple passages." He also extends this idea to other writers. Orwell asserts
that writers are driven by ego or a desire to be recognized as significant to the world and
yet are at their best when driven by larger motivations that benefit humanity.

THEMES
Aestheticism
When discussing his four motivations for writing, George Orwell writes, "Above the
level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations." He
describes his earlier and less-developed works to be motivated by both aestheticism and
ego or a desire to write things beautifully and a desire to be recognized as a writer.
Orwell posits that literature should not only be beautifully composed or have an
important message but that a writer's job is to marry these two aims. He describes being
enamored with the beauty of two lines from John Milton's (1608–74) Paradise Lost
(1667) and writes, "The 'story' must, I suppose, have reflected the styles of the various
writers I admired at different ages, but so far as I remember it always had the same
meticulous descriptive quality." Orwell describes reveling in "the joy of words" and their
sounds, the pleasing quality they achieve on the page, and the necessity of this beauty in
good writing.

Egoism
Sheer egoism is the first of the four motivations Orwell lists, and it focuses on the writer's
self-interest. Orwell describes egoism in unflattering terms related to the desire to be
talked about and written about as well as in positive terms. Orwell writes that although
many people live lives of drudgery or toil chiefly focused on others, "there is also the
minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end,
and writers belong in this class." Egoism isn't only vanity. Orwell claims it is also
morality that dictates an independent spirit and willingness to put art first.

Political Purpose
Orwell's work ultimately has a political purpose, and he garnered fame and fortune by
being an outspoken critic of totalitarianism. He educated himself by being a voracious
reader and writer as well as experiencing life as a civil servant, soldier, teacher, and
newspaper editor. In these positions Orwell honed his political views and wrote
extensively about the evils of fascism and practical problems of communism. Both of his
chief works Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) are concerned
primarily with political purpose. Orwell concludes that this is for him the most
compelling motivation to answer the central question regarding "Why I Write." He goes
so far as to claim that "looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I
lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books."

Theme Pt.2
The focus of the essay is the motive behind writing. The writer, George Orwell, mentions
four reasons for writing. The first one is "sheer egoism" which means that a writer writes
to look clever and important. The second motive is aesthetic. The third reason for writing
is the desire to find and convey true events. The fourth one is political motive. He further
argues that he considers the political motive as the least important but he has to write
politically due to the disturbing events of his age. Still, he tries hard not to lose the
aesthetic consideration in which he occasionally failed.

Questions
Q1: Explain "Aesthetic Enthusiasm"?
Ans: Aesthetic Enthusiasm is the second motive behind writing as mentioned by George
Orwell in his essay "Why I write". In his own words it means "perception of beauty......in
words and their right arrangement". He gives his opinion that writers write because they
feel and enjoy the impact of one sound over another. They appreciate the rhythmic
arrangement of words. Aesthetic Enthusiasm is the sense of feeling the beauty in the
"firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story". George Orwell believes that even
minor or technical writers do have some sense of feeling the beauty of words.

Q2: Can mankind exist without "Sheer Egoism"?

Ans: No, in my opinion mankind cannot exist without "Sheer Egoism". George Orwell
mentions in his essay that sheer egoism is the motive behind writing which means that
the writers write because they want to look clever, or want to get attention or importance.
In my view, it is not only the motive behind writing, almost all the actions of man are
guided by egoism. It is the inherent nature of man that he wants to look better than others.
He wants attention, importance and fame. In short, man cannot separate egoism from his
personality.

Q3: Discuss the essay as a biography of Orwell's writing life.

Ans: The essay "Why I write" by George Orwell narrates the story of the writer's journey
of writing. He tells the readers that he wrote his first poem at the age of four or five years
which was an imitation of William Blake's poem. He wrote a patriotic poem at the age of
eleven which was published in the local newspaper. After a few years, he wrote a few
more unfinished poems in the Georgien style. He also wrote a story, which in his view,
was a failure. He helped to edit the school magazine. He also wrote a whole rhyming play
in imitation of Aristophanes. Then at the age of sixteen, he discovered the joy of mere
words, that is, how the words are arranged. Then he got clear about the kinds of book that
he wanted to write. He wanted to write books in which "words were written partly for the
sake of their sound". But he could not do so because of the disturbing events of his age.
After the Spanish war, he was clear about his writing ambitions. After 1936, whatever he
wrote, it was directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism
but he also tried hard to write aesthetically as well in which he sometimes failed.