The Sporting Spirit by George Orwell

First published in 1945, this essay presents a scathing critique of competitive and team sports made forceful by well-chosen examples and logical argumentation.

As a highly regarded and influential British novelist and essayist of the twentieth century, the Orwell Prize for political writing and the Orwell Award for critical analysis of public discourse are named in honour of George Orwell.

Who is the composer?

Eric Arthur Blair, aka George Orwell, was born June 25, 1903 in Motihari Bihar, British India. When Orwell was only a year old, his mother returned to England where he was raised in Oxfordshire. Although Orwell was born into the upper class, his family's lack of wealth limited his prospects and he was encouraged to work hard at school to earn a scholarship. He eventually attended the prestigious Eton school as a King's Scholar, but neglecting his studies he failed to secure a scholarship for university. Instead he joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma in 1922. After returning to England, Orwell frequently ventured into poorer areas to experience the world of poverty and the people who lived in it and spent some time on the anti-fascist side in the Spanish Civil War.

Over the span of his life, Orwell worked as a writer and journalist, publishing nine novels as well as numerous essays and articles. He died of tuberculosis in 1950 at the age of 46. Orwell is most remembered for his novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

What is the context of the text?

The text is an essay that was written for the The Tribune in 1945. The Tribune was a left-wing British newspaper founded in 1937 that is still active today as a magazine. From 1943-45 Orwell worked for the paper as literary editor, commissioning and writing reviews as well as a series of columns. His works for The Tribune have become classics in the craft of writing opinion pieces and are studied by journalism students.

What is the intended purpose and audience?

The text was written for a left-wing newspaper, so was written with an educated, left-wing audience in mind. It challenges a popular ideology, so would most likely appeal to people who are interested in alternative perspectives on the dominant culture. The purpose of the text is to enlighten readers and convince them of its argument - that sport does not create good will between nations or people, but rather acts as a promoter of nationalism and war.

Task

1. What are some of the examples Orwell uses to prove that sport does not foster good will between nations?

2. What is the point of the opening anecdote about the visit of the Russian Dynamo football team? 

3. Orwell uses the metaphor "orgies of hatred" to describe the behaviour surrounding international sporting contests. Explain the connotations of using this phrase and evaluate how effective it is in engaging the reader and conveying his argument.

4. How does competition impact the playing of sport? How does Orwell's description of this further his argument?

5. Orwell writes: "Instead of blah-blahing about the clean, healthy rivalry of the football field and the great part played by the Olympic games in bringing nations together, it is more useful to inquire how and why this modern cult of sport arose." Explain how he uses the following techniques in this section to engage the reader:

• informal, derogatory tone

• counter-argument

• metaphor

6. Summarise his short history of sport that he provides on page 3.  What is the main point he is trying to make using this historical overview? 

7. "Games were built up into a heavily financed activity, capable of attracting vast crowds and rousing savage passions, and the infection spread from country to country." Explain the metaphor used in this section. What is sport compared to and what is the significance of the comparison? How effective do you think it is?

8. "If you wanted to add to the vast fund of ill-will existing in the world at this moment, you could hardly do it better than by a series of football matches between Jews and Arabs, Germans and Czechs, Indians and British...each match to be watched by a mixed audience of 100,000 spectators." How does Orwell undermine the argument of his opponents in this section?

9. Persuasive pieces often use a technique called concession - this is when a writer concedes some small part of an opponents argument or clarifies that his argument is narrower than might be interpreted. Find an example of concession and evaluate its effectiveness. 

10. Going back to the title "The Sporting Spirit", what do you think Orwell believes the spirit of sport is? How is this phrase normally used? Explain the tone he is using in titling his piece this way.

How does it engage the responder?

Orwell uses the metaphor of sport being war minus the shooting to articulate his argument that organised sport is inherently violent and nationalistic. 

"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting." 

Such a comparison is highly effective as it implies that not only is serious sport incredibly violent, it also holds the same implications as war. For Orwell to argue that sport did not foster goodwill was already a contentious argument for his time, but to utilise the metaphor of war is downright inflammatory. The boldness of his choice of words like the adjective 'sadistic' to describe sport lovers shocks the reader into considering his perspective. 

Another example of his use of hyperbole (exaggerated language) is the use of the inflammatory adjective 'lunatic' to describe nationalism. In doing so he is implying nationalism is an illness of the mind. Other writers have referred to nationalism (pride in your nation) as a type of brain cancer. Comment on how effective you think such descriptions are.