A Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess

The use of the phrase “viddy him swim in his own blood while we counted the takings”, shows how criminals such as Alex and his “droogs”, can get away with such vicious acts of crime so often that it has become a hobby for them as they take so much enjoyment from the acts. Also the casual tone depicted from the text suggests the careless nature that Alex has towards the vulgar acts. These combined together add to the theme of corruption in society in ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

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

Many times throughout one of Ken Kesey’s most famous novels, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book uses animals as symbols to represent the story’s plot. The animals usually relate to individual characters and their current struggles within the story. Animal imagery provides us with great insight to the themes that Kesey is trying to have us explore, and is a very good tool that the reader can use to help better understand and relate to the characters.

“The attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my sword-pen,” Anthony Burgess in his novel ‘A Clockwork Orange’, which happens to be a scathing critique of totalitarian government, through the character of F. Alexander. Burgess is attempting to criticize the type of governments that try to limit the freedom of an individual through science and technology. To be more specific, the use of ‘Ludovico technique’, is one example of the government using technology to establish control in the dystopian world of the text. Although the government, in its defense, prioritizes the safety and well-being of society, it is imperative to note that this use of technology turns Alex, the protagonist into a creature devoid of moral choices. This is what Burgess is referring to by the term ‘mechanical creation’, Alex goes on living his life as a machine, his criminal reform is marked by his inability to make conscious moral decisions. How then, is this scientific measure of criminal reform pursued by the government justifiable? Good and evil are intrinsic part of any human being. An individual always has the moral conscience and choice of picking between the two, and this is what makes him human.

As I’m seemingly searching the shelves full of books hoping to find the one for me,this book catches my eye. Further and further I get into this book, the more exciting it gets. I can definitely relate to this outgoing character, we’re like the same person. This book showed me what determination is, when the odd are stacked against you but you still go, what you have to do, that’s what this story is all about.

Previous research suggests that Alex DeLarge, a fictional character created by Anthony Burgess, was the epitome of evil. However, previous research has not considered the environmental, socio-economical, and physiological dispositions that molded him into the person he became. Hence, in this paper, it is argued that Alex DeLarge is at a greater risk for Antisocial Personality Disorder than most members of the general population. This is important because it allows us to view beyond the theatrics and the metaphors into a character that is mentally unstable not a villainous caricature in the eyes of the audience.

“A Clockwork Orange” starts with Alex posing the question: “what’s it going to be then, eh?”. Burgess begins the story by demonstrating that Alex

Character in both novels use unsuccessful escape methods to cope with their loss of identity. Alex, the protagonist in A Clockwork Orange, turns to classical music such as Beethoven when his gang members question his hierarchy within the group. Alex describes his bedroom where he goes after an argument with his gang members : "the little speakers of my stereo were all arranged round the room, on ceiling, walls, floor, so, lying on my bed slooshying the music, I was like netted and meshed in the orchestra." (Burgess. 37). We see Alex return to his bedroom many times after confrontations where his identity is disputed. Eventually, Alex is conditioned to feel sick whenever he hears classical music so Alex loses this escape method as he can no longer listen to classical music. Also, Alex relies heavily on the use of drugs when he is unable to deal with his loss of identity, " officially sanctioned "milk bars" that serve a variety of drug tonics to send one off on incoherent fantasies" (Gottlieb). These "milk bars" are locations where young

Although attacks on A Clockwork Orange are often unwarranted, it is fatuous to defend the novel as nonviolent; in lurid content, its opening chapters are trumped only by wanton killfests like Natural Born Killers. Burgess' Ted Bundy, a teenage Lucifer named Alex, is a far cry from the typical, spray paint-wielding juvenile delinquent. With his band of "droogs," or friends, Alex goes on a rampage of sadistic rape and "ultraviolence." As the tale unfolds, the

One of the first things that captures a reader’s attention as they’re reading Anthony Burgess’ novel, A Clockwork Orange, is the argot, also known as “nadsat” in the novel, which presents the idea that language can shape reader’s thoughts. This is depicted by the language techniques such as descriptive language and slang (nadsat). The nadsat, which the main character and narrator, Alex, and his friends in violence, or “droogs” as they call themselves, speak throughout the novel shields the readers of the gory and brutal violence that is really being done to people. The way the author describes the attacks, or as Alex calls “ultraviolence”, using the artificial language works because all of the time the readers are reading, they have to be think about what words such as “yarbles” (testicles), “glazzies” (eyes), and “oozy” (chain) mean, and so this creates a delay in the readers minds in registering what is actually happening to the people Alex and his friends are attacking.

In the novel A Clockwork Orange, the author Anthony Burgess tells a story about a young man name Alex and his friends, every night they go around and start committing violent acts. In the novel Alex expresses his freedom of choice between good and evil. The freedom of choice is a decision that every person must make throughout his life in order to guide his actions and to take control of his own future. This Freedom of Choice, no matter what the outcome is, displays person power as an individual, and any efforts to control or influence this choice between good and evil will take way the person free will and enslave him. In this novel the author uses this symbolism through imagery. He shows that through the character of

The use of music as a motif in (Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange 1962)] creates a lens so that the viewer is able to recognize the trend that violence has to destroy an individual’s identity. Although Alex (Malcolm McDowell) clearly associates violence with his own individual identity and sense of self, he consistently reveals the impossibility of remaining an individual in the face of group-oriented violence. The images that music create coincide the destruction of Alex’s identity, either through compliance to a group’s style of violence or through failure to embrace the similarity of group actions associated with violence. As the movie progresses, musical imagery follows the exit and return of his personal identity as a role of his

The society of A Clockwork Orange is constructed upon struggles for power. Crime is a part of the everyday. Violent street gangs seek power through anarchism, direct authority is represented by a network of corrupt police, and on the highest social level a struggle for political and administrative power is fought. Alex reflects: "Power, power, everybody like wants power." As a microcosm of the social mentality, he seems to fit the notion of being a product of his environment.

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, is one of the most experimental, original, and controversial novels of the twentieth century. It is both a compelling work of literature and an in-depth study in linguistics. The novel is a satirical, frightening science fiction piece, not unlike others of this century such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. However, the conflicts and resolutions in A Clockwork Orange are more philosophical than social, and its message is far more urgent.

Similarly, the character of Alex McDowell and his actions are presented with methods comparable to that of Bonnie and Clyde. Stanley Kubrick stresses the violence in A Clockwork Orange as a way to show the full extent of his harmful maniacal ways. Narration alone can only tell us so much about his personality and isn't able to comprehensively encompass the significance of the violence attributed to Alex. It isn't until we see the crimes being committed in vivid detail that we are able to recognize the true nature of Alex’s moral extent. This illustrates him as the character he is meant to be as per the novella written by Anthony Burgess. We learn through wide angle shots of the moments leading up to the raping of a helpless woman, that Alex is entirely comfortable with the sadistic action and even finds it amusing. Upward facing camera angles that specifically place his face as the focal point are used during this scene and many others like it to enunciate his sinister appearance. They are used to show that as a person, Alex enjoys these all to pernicious behaviors. The excessive realness of the scenes only supports our understanding of his lack of humanity. Alex’s aggressiveness is magnified by the way he senselessly beats the old man under the bridge and the husband of the raped woman. Incorporating an undisturbed shot of him doing so allows it make a greater impact on the audience's perception of the character. Just as in Bonnie and Clyde, violence is shown with no