A Clockwork Orange Free Will Essay

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

The film, Fatal Attraction is a clear depiction of the psychopathology showcased by the character, Alex. Alex becomes a stalker following her one-night-strand with a successfully married businessman, Dan. Following the affair, Alex vowed to make Dan quit his family by doing everything within her reach. First she attempted suicide as we see she cut her wrist to bar Dan from going to his family. However, when Dan finally rejects her opinion, she advances fierce threats to Dan including kidnapping Dan’s daughter, Ellen. Alex would never stop as she even waited Alex at his office to apologize and further extend her invitation to the opera, Madama Butterfly but she is again turned down raises her rage. Further, she calls Dan’s office stalking Dan’s

In Depth Character Analysis on Alex Besides the protagonist in A Clockwork Orange, who is Alex? Many times we only look at main characters with an outsiders perspective. The characteristics of a character are important, but the main characters are often made to be so much more in the inside by the author. Most simply, from an outward perspective, who is Alex? What shaped Alex to be violent?

The grace of evil in A Clockwork Orange is a recurring paradox throughout the novel and also implies a deep religious connotation. The main foci are the several aspects of evil, violence, and sexual acts committed by Alex and his gang members. However, Anthony Burgess has cleverly incorporated similar paradoxes to that of grace and evil, along with a different dialect to aid in masking the true harshness that lies underneath the violence. The other paradoxes include the extremes of night and day, good and bad, and black and white.

In a society where raping, murdering, and robbing happens very often, it is hard to determine what the best method is to lower the crime rates. Alex, one of the many teens who commit violence on a regular basis, has done many crimes. Five different methods have been used on Alex and each has its own benefits and drawbacks. “Clockwork Orange” argues that letting him be is the best method for Alex because he starts to get tired of violence, wants to start a family, and learns to show genuine care for others with nothing in return. However, too much free will is unreasonable and will not allow Alex to realize violence is bad.

“What’s it going to be then, eh?” is the signature question in Anthony Burgess’s novel, A Clockwork Novel that not only resonates with the moral identity of the anti-heroic protagonist, Alex, but also signifies the essential choice between free will that perpetrates evil and deterministic goodness that is forced and unreal. The prison chaplain and the writer F. Alexander voice the most controversial idea in the novel: man becomes ‘a clockwork orange’ when robbed of free will and tuned into a deterministic mechanism.

Through processes of rehabilitation, hypnosis and propaganda the government creates a society conditioned for manipulation. In particular, both novels exist to manipulate information of their own people as an advantage to keep their citizens under their complete control. Prior to Alex’s attempt for suicide in A Clockwork Orange, the government composes an article addressing the prevailing success the Ludovico Technique has achieved. The government subsequently restores Alex back to his old self in order to protect itself from blame on his attempted suicide. Knowingly still a threat to the government, Alex is ultimately released back into a society once again as a consequence of the government's inaccuracy and guilt. In an attempt for innovation,

The psychodynamic approach can be used to explain the moral conflict on why Alex did not bring up his concerns for Ada. Freud (1923) psychoanalytic theory would explain this as having an internal conflict with his id, ego, and superego. According to Freud the id is based on the selfish principal who seeks instant gratifications of its desires. The superego is based on the moral principal concerned with social acceptable principles and values. The ego is the executive part of the personality involved in planning and rationalisation and is the logical aspect of the mind. (Gross 2005).

   As both the protagonist and narrator of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, the character of Alex is an intriguing study from start to finish. Specifically, in comparing part one and part three of the novel, Alex's world, internally and externally, his characterization and travails are shown to be mirror images of each other, both identical and reversed. Where Alex was the soulless victimizer in part one, he finds himself repeatedly a victim in part three. Where he was once welcome at the story's start, he is cast out at the close. What gives him pleasure at the beginning, in part three gives him pain. This neat symmetrical structure clearly and symbolically portrays how much Alex

In the novel A Clockwork Orange, the freedom to choose is shown to be a vital, recurring theme that gradually evolves as the novel progresses. Throughout the first six chapters of the novel, Alex asserts his free will by choosing a course of wickedness. He is subsequently arrested in chapter 7 of part one of the novel, when he is caught red-handed in the middle of committing a crime and is taken to prison. In prison, Alex learns about the Ludovico's Technique, a method that robs the subject of his/her will to choose but grants the subject's release and freedom. Alex's one and only friend in prison, the chaplain, cautions Alex of the treatment, emphasizing the fact that he will "Never again ... have the desire to commit acts of violence or to

Fite, S. 1997. Analysis and interpretation of Anthony Burgess a clockwork orange. http://www.beaconlc.org/ctech/stuwork/interp.htm Date of access: 16 Oct. 2015.

Ethics and morality to some individuals seem to be an idea that is just blurred in their mind of judgment. As if, it is a foreign concept that is incomprehensible due to how abstract their level of thinking is. Back in 1972, Stanley Kubrick adapted the novel A Clockwork Orange into a film whose contents and motifs could make even the most unwavering squeal and squirm. However, the mind of Alex in the film is a marvel in itself to where delving deep into his mental being and his thought processes are enough to recommend a viewing if not for the fact that the legend Stanley Kubrick directed the work. It's the conditioning that Alex goes through and his psyche that needs a thorough analysis to fully grasp the stories intent towards the viewer.

Though our human nature is to be good, Alex is the complete opposite. Alex is suddenly backstabbed by his companions while robbing a woman’s house, who he murdered that night. Alex was sent to Jail and sentenced to 4 years in prison. He soon found out about

The freedom of choice and the rehabilitating form of corrections secures the domain of “ A Clockwork Orange” by Burgess. It produces the question about a mans free will and the ability to choose ones destiny good or evil.

     What becomes of a man stripped of his free will? Does he continue to be a man, or does he cease? These are questions that Anthony Burgess tries to answer. Written in the middle of Burgess’ writing career, A Clockwork Orange was a reflection of a youth subculture of violence and terrorization that was beginning to emerge in the early 1960s. The novel follows Alex, a young hoodlum who is arrested for his violent acts towards the citizens of London. While incarcerated, Alex undergoes a technique in which his free will towards acts of a barbaric - or even harmless - nature is taken from him, then is forced to face the world once more as a machine-like