Free Will vs Determinism in 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’.

Antony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange is similarly set in a future dystopian society. The book is narrated by 15 year old Alex, a delinquent who enjoys violence, rape and classical music. Alex is eventually arrested for his behaviour after he is betrayed by his gangmates (“droogs”) during a robbery; he is sent to prison for 14 years, but during his stay is offered an alternative treatment called ‘Ludovico’s Technique’ which would dramatically reduce his sentence. The treatment involved Alex being beaten to anger him, followed by an injection of a mind controlling drug, then subjecting him to hours of violent films.

         Burgess does not characterize Alex as just a murderous rapist.  To come to terms with his wife's death, he had to believe that it is inhuman to be totally good or totally evil (Burgess ix).  In the final chapter, Alex undergoes a moral transformation; "he grows bored with violence and recognizes that human energy is better expended on creation than destruction" (vii).  Burgess could not believe that the men who raped his wife were totally evil, so Alex had to redeem himself by living a normal life.

In part one of the novel, we witness the ability of free will that Alex possesses and his ability to choose between good and evil through contrast presented by darkness of night and lightness of day. At the beginning of the novel, Alex and his droogs (friends), Pete, Georgie, and Dim are at the Kovova Milkbar, roaming the streets and committing violent acts during night. Alex and his droogs encounter an old man who is drunk and is singing a sentimental song. Alex instantly chooses the path of evil with the free will that he encompasses, and along with his droogs they beat the old man while laughing at his misery. The old man complains about the “stinking world” and says, “It’s a stinking world because it lets the young get on to the old like you done, and there’s no law nor order no more.” (Part 2, Chapter 2, Page 12) At night, Alex uses violence and chooses to beat, rape, and murder innocent people because it shows that he has freedom of choice and has authority and power in society. Alex’s interpretation of darkness and night is, “The night belonged to me and my droogs and all the rest of the nadsats (teenagers), and the starry bourgeois lurked indoors…” (Part 1, Chapter 4, Page 33). In contrast,

The amount of crime in a society reflects the society’s values greatly. Alex and his friends commit violent crimes in this book purely for their entertainment. Alex says,“ But what I do, I do because I like to

Specifically, his issues with Christine relate to the story a bit. “She didn’t want to be with a homicide detective, and I probably couldn’t be anything else” (Patterson 103). A little backstory is needed to understand this; Christine has recently gone through an extremely traumatizing experience relating to her being held captive by a psychopath for a year. She wants to leave because she needs to get away from all the psychopaths and killers that Alex deals with in his job. Alex reflects on this throughout the story, and at one point debates whether to keep being a homicide

Antisocial Personality Disorder ( ASPD) is a mental illness with various causal factors such as genetic predispositions, environment, parental neglect, gender, brain abnormalities, etc. The factors presented affect the character Alex DeLarge from Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1963). Despite Alex not being diagnosed, it is evident that he suffers from ASPD, it is clearly expressed through his behaviors and mentality. Eventually, Alex is incarcerated preceding a murder he committed, in order to be released early he enlists himself to a treatment so that he could be cured. The events that follow include his participation in the Ludovico Technique, an experimental form of aversion therapy which leaves him unable to fulfill the needs of his mental illness.

He is deceiving his parents, Pee and Em, insinuating that he has a job and that is why he is out all night and comes home with a bunch of money. Instead, he is out causing havoc among the city. He and his droogs start off every night by going to the Korova milk bar. There they go out to see the old ladies where they buy drinks and make friends with the old ladies so that the older ladies can cover for them. There are a couple of events in the night that happen and show the reader Alex’s true colors. There is an incident with and old drunk man in the streets. The man is talking about how the kids have ruined his beautiful country. Alex and his friends decide that this man has to be stopped and proceed to beat the hell out of him and leave him there to rot. Alex and his droogs also run into someone around their age in the night. The only difference between Alex and his droogs and this kid is that; this kid is a bookworm and is more into books rather than violence. They harass this kid by beating the hell out of the kid and shredding all of his reading material. They also arrive at a shop where they decide that they want to go in and rob the shop owner. Though they are young, Alex and his friends are smart. They use Masks to go in and rob this store of their cigarettes and money. While in the process of robbing this man and his store they also decide to just have fun with him and torture him. Alex and his

Dim and Georgie, two of his droogs, set up a plan in an attempt to take Alex out of the leadership position, as they feel Alex is too controlling and immature in his actions. News to Alex, he lashes out, cutting Dim’s hand and threatening Georgie, he makes it clear that things are to go back to the way they always have been and out of fear, Dim and Georgie agree. QUOTE This shows how important being a part of something is to Alex. The instant fear that comes out of the possibility of losing the acceptance of his droogs is the real answer to why Alex was driven to violence. These three violent people, his gang, were all that he had found to accept him.

Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, a critically acclaimed masterstroke on the horrors of conditioning, is unfairly attacked for apparently gratuitous violence while it merely uses brutality, as well as linguistics and a contentious dénouement, as a vehicle for deeper themes.

Is it better to be a man choosing wrong than a man who is forced to choose right?

One such phrase is said by the jail’s chaplin back in section two: “Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has good imposed on him?”(Burgess 106). After having read, A Clockwork Orange, the reader will most likely answer “yes” to this question. After examining Alex both pre- and post- conditioned, it is clear that when Alex choose to be bad, he was more self-confident and independent (qualities modern society contributes to a valuable member of the world) than his conditioned counterpart. Burgess used, A Clockwork Orange, as an outlet for “his oft-expressed anxieties about the future” (Rieff 124). Burgess feared the future post World War II and a pre-technological explosion world.

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

family,  a life, and in essence he chooses good for the first time in the

A Clockwork Orange demonstrates the philosophically issues of free will and determinism through how the main character was treated in the movie. It also addresses important issues such as ethics, philosophy of the mind, free will and determinism, and the problem of perception. Philosophers such as John Hospers, B.F. Skinner, and Jean-Paul Sartre have different views on the issue through their theories of how individuals are or are not responsible for the free will choices that they make in life. The main character in the movie was a very violent , and reckless person. He participated in sinful acts such as being a gang member, raping women, being involved in fights, etc. These actions resulted in him being sent to prison and eventually being brainwashed into doing things out of his character. The three philosophers have very different interpretations of how the main character should have been dealt with and the reasonings behind his actions.