39 pages • 1 hour read
George OrwellWhy I Write
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1946A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
George Orwell
The author, George Orwell, was a celebrated novelist. He is best known for his political allegory, Animal Farm, and his dystopian novel, 1984. His work was motivated the politics of his time. In “Why I Write,” Orwell described himself as idealistic, artistic, and reflective. This, he claimed, did not align with the type of writing he was best known for. Orwell chose to imbue his work with political purpose to meet the ideological needs of mid-twentieth century wartime England.
Born in 1903 in the then-British colony of India, Orwell graduated from Eton College in 1921 and lived his adult life through the turbulent World Wars and interwar period. This significantly impacted Orwell’s writing. He considered it impossible to live through such politically tense times without using art to reveal the truth behind society, government, and ideology. His desire for a socialist revolution in England was grounded upon his belief in the equality of all men and the destruction of private capitalism. He viewed private capitalism as a major contributor to the rise of fascism in Europe.
Orwell grew up in a family belonging to the “sahib” class, or colonial administrators. Growing up he had easy access to money, resources, and opportunities. When analyzing English society, Orwell blamed much of the failures of the English government on the social class he was born to. This positioned him to argue for socialism, as he was willing to rescind the privileges of his class in favor of bettering the general population of England. In these essays and in his novelistic writing, Orwell criticized totalitarian governments, imperialism, and the inefficiency of a capitalistic society. His belief in language as a tool is married to his understanding of art as driven by historically determined purpose. He intended his writing in these essays to be used as a tool for social and cultural revolution.
Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940 and the head of England’s Conservative Party. Orwell heavily criticized his interwar and wartime policies in “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius.” Orwell analyzed the motivations of English Conservatism and argued that its difference from fascism was merely illusionary, with English Conservatives willing to turn the blind eye to Hitler’s rise to power so long as their capitalistic profits were not affected. Orwell wrote that “anyone who was genuinely hostile to Fascism must also be opposed to Chamberlain himself and to all the others who has helped Hitler into power” (57). This statement reveals how complicit the English Conservative Party was in Hitler’s success at commanding influence in Germany.
Orwell criticized Chamberlain's personal character as unintelligent and ignorant: “he was merely a stupid old man doing his best according to his very dim lights” (28). Orwell drew a comparison between the collective mindset of the English people as strong enough to enact necessary political change and the inability of the ruling class (i.e., Chamberlain himself) to recognize the desires of the people. Doing so would have put the Conservative Party’s power and economic interests at risk, which Orwell claimed was more significant to them than honoring the democratic will of the people.
Chamberlain was one of the few figures Orwell named outright in this collection of essays. His negative presence in “The Lion and the Unicorn” represents the poor political state England was in during the bombing of London. Usually, Orwell’s style was to generalize. He talked of the ruling class, the moneyed class, the working class, fascists and socialists, but frequently shied away from placing blame on an individual. He believed individuals were the product both of their historical and political circumstances, as well as the fact that the World Wars had dehumanized them. Orwell felt it was impossible to blame one person for the war if one empathically considered that person’s character and history.
After a series of defeats and political failures, Chamberlain resigned his position on May 10, 1940. The Conservative government was replaced by Winston Churchill’s coalition government.
Adolf Hitler
Born in 1889 in Braunau, Austria, Adolf Hitler became the leader of the Nazi Party and dictator of Germany. Following Germany’s defeat in World War I, Hitler’s charismatic and persuasive abilities allowed him to transform the German Workers’ Party into the Nazi Party. His rise to power was intricately connected with the national atmosphere of Germany being one of resentment toward the rest of Europe and political instability. His pursuit of establishing an Aryan Nation resulted in the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing of those the Nazi’s deemed below themselves.
Orwell discussed Hitler at length through “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius” as Germany and its leadership provide the most salient examples of fascism in action. Orwell passionately criticized Hitler’s totalitarianism and his cruelty. Orwell’s political beliefs were exactly the opposite from Hitler’s, and champion socialism and equality for all classes of people. Orwell believed that to beat Hitler, it was necessary for the English government to socialize to increase their productivity and morale. But it was also necessary to defeat Hitler before establishing a socialist government that was workable in a global context.
Hitler as a symbol for totalitarianism served as the main motivation for Orwell’s writing, as well as the writing’s main antagonist. Orwell’s arguments, while critical of the English ruling class, afforded them a measure of empathy. Hitler’s role in disrupting European society and instigating World War II were inexcusable to Orwell. Orwell’s passion for the socialist cause was deeply rooted in his desire to witness Hitler’s defeat.
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By George Orwell
