George Orwell And Joan Didion Essay

The essays, both titled “Why I Write”, by George Orwell and Joan Didion provide some perspective on the inner motivation that writers have whenever they made their works. Orwell wrote his essay almost the define his own life through his writing and express what he, himself, have seen through his experience as a writer. Inspired by Orwell’s essay, Didion wrote her essay almost like a response to him and she tried to define how she made a story take form.

Orwell’s essay was had more details to it then Didion. Before he ever wrote about writing motives, he first wrote of his own experiences with literature. The way he developed into a writer and how he made his life into a narrative is used as the basis for his knowledge of writing. It was from this recounting of his life that Orwell stated the motives he’s encountered. There were four reasons that he concluded: ego, artistic expression, historical impulse, and political purpose. Orwell describes these motives in detail and clearly defines what each one means to him as a writer. He then wrote about his own writing style
She writes only about the artistic expression that she is compelled to use and the desire to tell a story through someone’s eyes. Didion describes her days of trying to write in a simple, practical matter and that she failed to do it. Instead, the essay is filled with descriptions of how magical grammar and language can be. She uses this language to connect to a story as to properly expresses the events to someone else. It’s like Didion sees the lines between fantasy and reality blurred simply through use of colorful language. The creation of a novel of her’s, A Book of Common Prayer, is described as she uses language to generate a narrator and further questions to answer with the story. It’s these questions about the details of a story seem to be what Didion thinks inspires