A Clockwork Orange Analysis

The fight against sexism is not a new fight. Women have been fighting for equal rights, as well as fighting for their lives, culture, and values to be just as important as men's. On August 18, 1920, women were granted the right to vote; but this was only the beginning. From then to now, the role of women in society has significantly changed due to women standing up for their rights at protests and rallies, as well as on social media. While “The Good Wife’s Guide” focused on the promotion of the traditional gender role of women and defined appropriate emotions for women, “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, represents the start of the resistance of the traditional gender role of women that we see in society today.

When we compare the novel, A Clockwork Orange, with the Age that the novel was written in, we find that Anthony Burgess didn’t focus the role of the women in A Clockwork Orange on the role of women in the era that he wrote the novel because the novel is a futuristic novel. During that era there were women like Mary Quant that contributed to the fact that they want women to have a better life. Mary fought for the women to have thoughts of their own and to do what they want to do and not what the men from that era tells them. And then we get the novel where Anthony Burgess degrades the female characters. The women are only there for the fun of

        The second event that influenced the creation of his novel happened when Burgess and his wife took a trip to the Soviet Union and encountered a group of thugs who strangely maintained a kind of honor code (Contemporary). Burgess displays morality in Alex by not making him a common

Angela McEwan-Alvarado was born in Los Angeles and has lived in many locations in the United States, as well as Mexico and Central America. She obtained her master’s degree at UC Irvine and since then has worked as an editor of educative materials and a translator. The story “Oranges” was the result of an exercise for a writer’s workshop in which the author managed to mix images and experiences accumulated throughout her life.

Throughout time women and their rights have varied among where they are living and the people that surround them. Some of the major changes with women’s rights is giving them the right to vote, reproductive rights, and the right to work for equal pay. Another thing that varies throughout time is women’s roles. For example 100 years ago the only jobs that women could have was to either be a housewife, nurse, or a teacher. Until about 1910, women didn’t really fight for their rights and what they could do. In 1910, women started to voice their opinions in society and fought for the right to vote. Though things have changed greatly today, there are still women in the world that believe in the “traditional way” and prefer to still wait on

Women feel like they are slaves and owned because they have no freedom. Women submit to laws in the formation of which she has no voice, they have no representation in the halls of legislation. Stanton elaborates further by providing that women have the same rights and privileges as men stating “we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States”(Stanton, 583) and that all people within a society should have the same status in respects of civil rights, freedom of speech, property rights and equal access to all social goods and services by stating, “it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” (Stanton, 582) When explaining each injustice and oppression against women, Stanton induces the reader to act “because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights.” (Stanton, 583) Stanton is portraying women as innocent, blameless victims, and men as the evil opposition.

A Clockwork Orange, a novel written by Anthony Burgess in the 1960’s takes place in dystopian future in London, England. The novel is about a fifteen year old nadsat (teenager) named Alex who along with his droogs (friends) commit violent acts of crime and opts to be bad over good. In time, Alex finds himself to be in an experiment by the government, making him unable to choose between good and evil, thus losing his ability of free will, and being a mere clockwork orange. A “clockwork orange” is a metaphor for Alex being controlled by the government, which makes him artificial because he is unable to make the decision of good verses evil for himself and is a subject to what others believe is right. In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

Since the dawn of time, men have always been deemed the superior race. Men were leader and kings. They were always more educated and held better-paying jobs. In the United States, the dominant group is white protestant males. Whenever, women or young children, especially young girls, try to rise up, they have been shot done. The tides have been changing, though, with more women standing up for equality and their constitutional rights. Where would women be without outspoken women like Susan B. Anthony or Florence Kelley. Florence Kelley, who was a United States Social worker and reformer, delivered a speech before the conventions of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, that presents the argument against unjust labor laws for women and children, using rhetorical devices that drives her message home.

For woman is was illegal to vote, or to do labor that ‘only’ men could do. The approach that women took to obtain these rights was by disobeying the ‘norm’. The NWP (National Woman’s Party) protested during Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration for their national rights, something that was out of the ordinary. They kept protesting, marching on the streets, enduring hunger strikes, and submitting to arrest and jail in order to gain the right to vote. What is important to consider is that if women had never utilized disobedience against the government they would have never been able to obtain their national rights, they would have never been able to prove to the world the change that a group of dedicated individuals can cause, they would have never been able to be treated and look up to as equals to men. In comparison to Socrates and other philosophers which opposed this way of behavior because it would impair the system. But to maintain moral integrity, promote social progress, and keep the authority of the government in check, this act of dereliction is

In modern society there is much value placed on the concept of individual freedom. However, too much freedom can provide an individual with the power to interfere with the happiness of others, thus a balance between freedom and state regulated order is required. The concept of an individual struggling against an order focused society is a common topic in texts. In Aldous Huxley’s 1933 novel Brave New World, this concept is explored by John, an outsider in a dystopian world society that places high value on stability rather than individualism. In Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, which is based Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel of the same name, a similar dystopian society is explored by the aggressively individualistic Alex.

Burgess points out the necessity of free will to maintain humanity at both the communal and individual level. The novel represents a futuristic dystopian society through its anti-hero Alex and charts the protagonist’s

“Orange is the New Black” is Netflix’s hit new original series. Currently in its second season, OINTB has received critical acclaim (Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes) for its unusual subject matter as well as its varied and multi-dimensional portrayal of race, gender, class, queer and trans issues. However, while it excels specifically with issues of gender and sexuality, the show falters a bit more on issues of race and class.

Anthony Burgess's writing style in his most famous novel, A Clockwork Orange, is different to say the least. This novel is praised for its ingenuity, although many are disturbed by Burgess's predictions for the future. However, for many, it is close to impossible to comprehend without outside help. This is because Burgess created a language specifically for this novel, called Nadsat. This Russian-based language forms conversations between the narrator, Alex, and his teenage, delinquent friends. There are many assumptions as to why Burgess chose to complicate A Clockwork Orange by filling it with the confusing Nadsat language. Some opinions are that the language shows A Clockwork Orange readers

In this sense, we are distanced from Bateman through narrative style. On the contrary, there are times when Alex embraces us, the reader, as his ‘friends’, and labels himself as ‘your humble narrator’, regardless of the social barrier that is created through his diversity in language. There is, of course, a derisive irony in Alex’s tone – but, nevertheless, there is a connection of sorts between character and reader. This connection softens the dramatic blow of the violence the character of Alex carries out also skilfully hidden through Burgess’ use of Nadsat, meaning the audience are perhaps more forgiving of Alex’s violence when it is so playfully and lovingly described as ‘lovely roughing’. The audience are therefore more forgiving of Alex and his action and sympathise for him later in the novel. The playful descriptions of such brutal acts demonstrates how Burgess was satirising how he youth have become desensitised to society and violence even describing it as ‘sport’, this was a large concern in 1960’s youth culture with popularisation in cinema and music which increasingly had more violent and sexual

   Freedom and liberalism are catchwords that appear frequently in both philosophical and political rhetoric. A free man is able to choose his actions and his value system, to express his views and to develop his most authentic character. What this kind of idealistic liberalism seems to forget, however, is that liberty does not mean a better society, better life or humanistic values such as equality and justice. In his novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), Anthony Burgess portrays an ultimately free individual and shows how a society cannot cope with the freedom which it in rhetoric so eagerly seeks to promote.