University of Latvia
Faculty of Modern Languages
Department of English Studies
Angela Fedina
af06005
Why I Write?
People write for many reasons: to express their opinion and show personal point of view, to describe some meaningful historical events, to share ideas and thoughts with public, or show things from a different perspective. In many ways writing is the act of proving your own personality, imposing oneself upon other people. Motives for writing may vary and depend on person’s character, way of living and way of thinking, still some common peculiarities remain. The motives of every author become clear, when you start to learn his background and the development of his personality, which actually may be reflected in his early works. Even a small detail brings a whole chain of sequential events, which influence author’s world outlook and a little bit influence on cultural and moral values, creating a completely unique personality.
George Orwell in his essay “Why I Write” was telling about four main motives, which guide every author. He mentions sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse and political purpose. One might say that it is impossible to describe all different motives for writing, by leaving only the main four. But if we take a look a little bit deeper, we can see that each principle, described by Orwell, is way more complicated than it seems at the first sight.
All people, more or less, are selfish creatures, who may lose their individuality only when they have their own children and family – they start concentrating on others, giving tenderness and care to beloved people, sometimes not willing for anything in return. And serious writers, actually, do not lose the sense of being the centre of the earth up until the end of their lives. And world history proves it, by showing us the most tragic fates of famous writers, who dedicated all their lives to writing and sharing their ideas with public, in order to be...