Brian Bristow
September 29th 2008
Eng 111
Essay on George Orwell

Political or Lexical Reasoning

Could Eric Arthur Blair, A.K.A. George Orwell, have used Lexical instead of Political as his underlying reasoning for the general collapse and degradation of modern English writing? I believe he could have based on four reasons. First, here are simpler reasons than those perceived by Orwell as responsible for the ugliness as he describes in “Politics and the English Language.” (1-2) Secondly, there is other, more pedestrian reasoning than the four mentioned in Orwell’s “Why I Write,” (2-3) which are: sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and Political purpose (1-2). And finally, after research into his past and getting only a small glimpse into the trials and hardships he had to deal with, compounded with poor health since childhood, I believe his views pertaining to writing were largely shaped by these ordeals (Stevens 9-11).

After reading the assigned work by George Orwell, and other samples of his work, I have come to ascertain that there are simpler reasons than those proposed by him “Why I Write,” for the general collapse of modern writing. Writing this essay for example, is not an easy undertaking, but I have available to me technology that while useful, may contribute to lazy writing. I am thankful for modern devices of today’s technology. I couldn’t fathom writing this by hand and all the mistakes and backtracked thoughts would certainly consume large amounts of paper or extra notebooks. The topic of this essay is not an easy undertaking for the average person; however, in this modern day, we do have more readily available resources at our disposal to ease the difficulty of the task of writing. Looking for a thesis statement about Mr. Orwell took some time; re-reading his work several times and researching on the internet, things that were not available to him or other literary personalities from his era. One main point he made in “Politics

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and the English Language” (6), was that more and more writers are using too many euphemisms, metaphors and phrases to complete their works. It is so easy to find a well-turned phrase from someone else and simply copy and paste it, it precludes having to think of some new way to say something that already sounds great and gets the point across to almost any reader. This ease of researching on the internet has contributed to the laziness of modern writers.

My own recent personal experiences do not fall into any of Orwell’s four reasons to write, but rather I have to write because of professional and educational requirements. Rather than providing or receiving an appraisal of my work in writing, I would much rather meet face-to-face and be able to have a two-way discussion about things that are going well or things that need to be improved. However, this is not how the Government system in which I am employed works. Written appraisals are required on a bi-annual basis and face-to-face meetings do not always take place. The sheer longevity of the average Government worker in the same place and job really makes coming up with new ways to say the same thing harder and harder without repeating yourself verbatim. What is written in these appraisals is not political, we have ethical and professional standards that are supposed to eliminate “office politics” from the work environment and there is definitely not an economical reason in our daily writing of reports, personal journals, and appraisals. These professional writings are important requirements to document work, with no higher purpose, either political or economical, as Orwell would purport in “Politics and the English Language” (1). These may be examples of writing in its worst forms according to Orwell, but he lets you know near the end of “Politics and the English Language” that at that moment of masking your meaning in words, you are now at the point of where politics is now influencing your writing(6).

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I can’t disagree with George Orwell on his views based on his own past experiences during his defining moments due to hardships and his first real glimpse of poverty in Wigan (Stevens, 10). His views of the people and how they lived and not where they lived was the start of his more outspoken pieces of work to champion the injustice of the way these people were treated and looked upon, if they were seen at all by others in society. He traveled extensively during 1936 and 1937, and his writings starting taking more and more political tone to mirror his views of the unjust nature of totalitarianism and building his case for a politics of conscience in which Michael R. Stevens stated Orwell, “…criticized communist deceit just as readily as capitalist malaise and at the center of his writing, his words and actions stood for the integrity of language” (1). His defining remark for me was in the last paragraph of “Politics and the English Language” which stated, “Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” Pausing on this paper to watch the first Presidential debate of 2008, one could almost see in political writings what was stated over half a century past, and still thriving today. Our current political climate has more readily available outlets (blogs, Myspace, Facebook, etc.) than that of Orwellian days, however, if George Orwell were around today, he would surely be a pundit.

It is easy to understand, based on his personal struggles and ordeals, why he blames politics for the collapse of writing. After his dealings in Catalonia and participation in the Spanish Civil War where he fought alongside the United Workers Marxist Party militia and was shot through the throat by a Francoist sniper’s bullet, Orwell spent some time in a Barcelona

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sanatorium with a neck wound and had time to reflect on his past couple of years and from that moment on, he knew what avenue his political views, voice and works would go.

I devised the main reasons for the Political versus Lexical thesis via serious consideration after re-reading our assigned selections and finding that there are many reasons that writing has degraded. I concluded that there are far simpler reasons for the degradation of especially the ready access we all have to technology, allowing us to “borrow” other’s ideas rather than develop our own in our writing. I also concluded there are many other reasons for writing in addition to Orwell’s proposed four, such as professional necessity, educational goals, capturing and documenting important thoughts, and quiet time, to name a few. Still, Orwell’s reasons are understandable given his experiences. I do believe it is wholly possible that a Lexical viewpoint, rather than a political one, could hold true for the cause and effect relationship in the decline of original thought and degraded usage of words in the English writing arena today.