Essay on "Why I Write" by George Orwell and Joan Didion

Can a hero still be a hero although he succumbs to his weakness? What if he becomes the very thing he was against or want to eradicate? In our modern world, we find many examples of heroes in stories, movies, and even the news that usually have a positive connotation related to them, and many of their story arcs usually have a positive resolution, similar to the classic romantic stories long ago. The author George Orwell completely flips the notion of the classic hero on its head, but does it well enough that it makes us question what is a true hero.

George Orwell once said, “freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”, that, essentially, “speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act”. (“George Orwell”) Orwell’s words reveal his political views in the absolute truest form. His uninhibited writing style forced readers to not only to listen what he had to say, but to also recognize his writing as the truth. Although his veracity was supposed to be accepted without question, Orwell defined oppressive ideas of the government by exposing elements such as class division, and the failed attempts of the middle class to establish a meaningful union with the working class. Through his symbolic storytelling in

“One of the things Orwell bequeathed us was the adjective ‘Orwellian’…. It is a frightening word, generally applied to a society organized to crush and dehumanize the individual, sometimes signifying the alienation of that individual if he dares to rebel” (Lewis 13). George Orwell, the pseudonym for Eric Arthur Blair, depicted the importance of the individual in society and the danger of too much community in his literature. Through his personal experiences, however, he explored the ideas of socialism and was torn between the individual and community ideals. In his literature and his past, Orwell spoke against movements that remove the individual, but still emphasized the importance of community. Thus, he advocated a

Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.

In George Orwell’s piece “Why I Write”, he says that one cannot assess a writer’s true motive if the background of the writer is not acknowledged. With George Orwell’s words in mind, I have shared some background of myself that determines my motives as a writer, which gives a reason for my writing. If I have forgotten about my past, I would no longer have a purpose to write. My past and experiences are what makes my images and illustrations in my mind, and those images turn into words on my paper. Both Joan Didion and George Orwell used the images in their minds to write stories and books. For an example, when Joan Didion began Play It as It Lays she saw the pictures. One of the pictures was a white blank space and the second picture is what

What forces a person to write? It could be feelings, situations, or even experiences. Writers such as George Orwell and Sylvia Plath influenced the world with their writing. As a major writer in the Blitz era, Elizabeth Bowen wrote her experiences in the war. Using the atmosphere and the surroundings as a source of her writing, Elizabeth created many different novels and short stories that played on the emotions of the people. One major short story, "The Demon Lover," displayed the Blitz as a tool for devastation. Although Elizabeth Bowen 's "The Demon Lover" depicts a mysterious and eerie atmosphere full of ghosts, it also portrays war as a destructive and catastrophic force.

Both authors, George Orwell and Joan Didion, wrote about the source of where they attained the passion to write. Orwell developed his love for writing at a very young age. He had to try and hide it, even abandon it, but inside he knew it was what he was born to do. Didion took a while to find her drive and passion for writing. Orwell's article sounded sad and regretful while Didion's seemed self-deprecating and half-hearted or unorthodox. She describes herself as not a bad or good writer, but merely a writer. Didion said that she writes because it is more of a tool for her to access, comprehend, ad express her mind. George Orwell says he writes because there is a lie he wishes to expose, fact he wants attention drawn to, and his initial concern

Dr. Mike Rose (1984) was the/is Director of the Freshman Writing Program at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). His book, Writer’s Block: The Cognitive Dimension, has been partly funded and copyrighted by the Conference on College Composition and Communication of the National Council of Teacher’s of English. During the mid-seventies to mid-eighties, Dr. Rose is one of the first people who re-diagnose [redefines] writer’s block as a mental struggle that the majority of people’s brains struggle with. Most people in circa eighteenth century to 1950’s, thought that writer’s block was a mental illness or was related to one. In Dr. Rose’s book Writer’s Block: The Cognitive Dimension, he explains why some people may have trouble writing; but it is not considered as writer’s block. “One reason someone might have

The action of writing words on a page exhibits a form of communication, possessing the ability to inform, influence, and educate the human mind. Throughout history, the act of writing words on a page has proven to be of outmost importance to express an individual’s emotions and thoughts. The power of carefully selected words can have an impact on an audience depending on the interpretation and the manner in which the words are conceived. Writers put words on paper, however the reason why writers write differentiates for each person. In Gorge Orwell’s personal essay, “Why I write”, Orwell defines the four motives of writing, including egoism, aesthetics, historical impulse, and political impulse.

George Orwell's writing as an author was immensely affected by the early political opinions formed by his job working for the British colonial government and fighting in the Spanish war on the republican side; this formed his political and cultural opinions within his writing; Orwell's life-long sickness of tuberculous also shaped ideas and opinions in his famous novel, 1984.

Ever since the 20th century, poverty exists in various of well developed countries, many individuals live under no shelter and suffer starvation. Although having a job can support their basics of living, working many hours also affect their health both mentally and physically. George Orwell, the author of the novel, Down and Out in Paris and London, describes how homelessness and poor working conditions can affect an individual by starving for a long period of time, having no shelter, and working in harsh environment. Orwell illustrates a journey about a person who lives in poverty in both contemporary countries, Paris and London in the 1930s. Where in Paris, he graphically describes the poor working experiences as a plongeur, a lowest position behind the kitchen of a high class French hotel, Hotel X. The narrator encounters many frustrations in handling money causing him to suffer from starvation in Paris. As in London, Orwell acutely narrates the life as a tramp, which looking for a place everyday becomes an issue for an individual because of the vagrancy law in England. Due to the absurd law of England, it makes the narrator even more difficult to live out of poverty in the novel. Orwell describes the life of a well educated individual who has to live under poverty due to the minimum amount of opportunities in Paris and London in 1930’s.

Listening to these four different ted talks, it gives the viewer insight on different learning styles and tips for creative writing. In the first video Stephen King expresses that writing is a discipline of the arts. In order to be a passionate writer you must get a buzz off the feeling. As a writer, failure is not seen negatively. Writing is subjective and bad feedback is what brings such great outcomes in pieces of literature. Following Stephen King’s video, Wally Lamb, in his documentary goes into depth on how he creates such imaginative characters in his head. He says after reading a novel so many times, the reader does not just see symbolism and character development, but the actual architecture of the

In my reading of the essays “Why I Write” by George Orwell and Elie Wiesel, the second essay by Mr. Orwell was more convincing. In my opinion the essay started off boring but as I kept reading he went in to the average writer’s four motives. These are basically their passion and or reason for their feeling to write and compel their thoughts and ideas onto paper. Sheer Egoism is basically what it sounds like a pure ego. With this motive you want to be remembered whether in life or death. Aesthetic enthusiasm is their view point of beauty in the external world. Such as how things work together such as letters making certain sounds or the contents and rhythm of a story. Historical Impulse is the interest to see things as they were created and

Eric Arthur Blair was born in 1903 at Motihari in British-occupied India. While growing up, he attended private schools in Sussex, Wellington and Eaton. He worked at the Imperial Indian Police until 1927 when he went to London to study the poverty stricken.

John Updike in his essay “Why Write” says that people have engaged into a selfish activity called writing. He says that a writer's role is like a keeper and guardian of keys of language. Updike says that what writer writes is more important than the writer himself. Sometime what a writer writes could be completely opposite to what they think. So, we should not mistake the ideas of writers with their personality.