Kwan
Yu-Ji (Jade)
131013
10v1
2013
May 2nd
How
does the use of genre and writing style support
the
main ideas in George Orwell’s ‘Why I Write’
George
Orwell’s ‘Why I Write’, a mixture of personal narrative, essay, persuasive
article, and poem. Through various genres the author tried to explain how he
writes, and the reason he writes, as stated in the title, and that they are due
to the viewpoints and postures he had acquired in his childhood and in his
growth. The reason he writes, in short, is that he wants to make political
writing into an art, and to write as exactly as he could. Yet ‘the reason’ he
writes has actually gone through a lot of changes, and it is shown as Orwell
matches them with his experiences and change of thoughts.
The
author first states that he knew that he was going to be a writer, even at a
very young age. Then he recounts his childhood, in the genre of a personal
narrative, describing it as lonely and isolated. The tone and diction he uses
provides a gloomy atmosphere, and that is effective as he shows his belief in
the fact that anybody can be a writer, and a special childhood is not something
necessary to become a writer. For, simply put, he had a dull childhood.
He depicts of his earlier literary works
negatively in a harsh tone, with the choice of diction such as ‘bad and
unfinished’, and ‘ghastly failure’. It can be deduced in two ways; one, that he
has a very high expectancy for his works and himself, or that he valued those
even objectively, very low indeed.
In
his childhood, the writer mentions the works he had done like a brief history;
and is similar to the literature style called asyndeton- which has an effect of
speeding up the reader, by quick listing. Then he presents his evaluations
about his works at that time. Plus, the reason he told the story of his growth
is that he believes that ‘one cannot access a writer’s motives without knowing
something of his early development’.
Then
the style Orwell originally wanted to write like is mentioned- something with
purple passages – which are strings of fancy words- with ‘meticulous
descriptive quality’, as picturesquely as his mental diary used to go inside
his head.
The
writer then becomes expository, and is uses a comparatively objective tone as
he writes about the four reasons why people write. Yet, in here, his final
writing reason is underlined. For ‘Sheer egoism’, he wants to remain himself,
as an individual, and here clarifies that ‘serious writers are vain and
self-centered’ ‘Aesthetic enthusiasm’
can be the evidence for his experience when he was 16; when he discovered ‘the
joy of mere words’ in Paradise Lost, and to his novel ‘Burmese Days’ as well.. ‘Historical
impulse’ can be linked with the poem he wrote about the Spanish Civil War,
which is also included in this piece, and is, also, the ultimate reason he
writes. ‘Political purpose’, he states here that it is lesser than other three
motives to him, but that is somewhat twisted for he later states that he wants
to express this aesthetically.
Orwell
gets more persuasive and emotional as this article proceeds. He finally states
that what he most wants to do- ‘to make political writing into an art’. He
combines the reasons he mentioned above as four motives for writing, and
explains in a colloquial style. And thus this is his ultimate reason he writes,
the conclusion he has arrived after years of writing.
‘I
write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I
want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. But I could
not do …. If it were not also an aesthetic experience.’
‘Good
prose is like a windowpane’
In
the above phrase he uses metaphor as to increase the involvement of the
imagination of readers; as how they interpret this, and he tries to say that a
good prose, one that he wants to write, should be clear and steady, with strong
motives.
Orwell
explains the reason, or more accurately, the reason’s’ he writes; to reveal
hidden truth, and to share his aesthetic experiences, and to express his ideas
as realistically as possible. This is opposed to his former, younger style of
writing, as it was all ‘purple passages’, fancy, picturesque. The intertwined
genres and different tones highlight his opinions and evidences- but his
ultimate purpose is clear. He wants to write political things in an artistic
way, as he his point of view was shaped as he grew.
‘And
looking back through my work, 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, decorative adjectives and humbug
generally.’
Approximately 800 words!!
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