Essay on Freedom of Choice in A Clockwork Orange

Alex shows this theme through his decisions in the book. At the beginning of the book he only cared about himself but as he is alone for awhile and then meets Darla he seems to care more for other people he meets, than for himself. He gives more then he gets. He gave little Katie's family food and was there for them when she died. Darla started making decisions like an adult even when her mother was alive. She made food and harvested corn. Darla grew up quickly when they were still on the farm. Alex and Darla grew up when they were with one another. They cared for eachother almost as if they were married. They cooked and traveled well and didn’t let little things bother them. Also after Alex killed multiple people he almost became not as soft as he was. He grew up a lot through killing multiple people, after this he seemed not as afraid to stand up for himself and Darla.

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, develops a fictional account of a violent futuristic society, while integrating commentary on  current political and social issues.

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

When asked “What is important in his life” Alex responded with a solid answer being Faith, family, and friends. All three of these items play a big role in how Alex lives his life and enjoys it at the same time. Faith is about having complete trust or confidence in someone or something and is important to have whenever times get tough. Faith in God is what keeps Alex going because he says he knows that God has a plan for him. Friends are important to Alex because he sees his friends every day and they support and challenge him. Family is a big part of his life because they are the ones who helped shape him into the

The statement mentions how everyone wants freedom to do what they always desired without any interference “with absolute freedom, and the road has always led west”. This epigraph describes McCandless perfectly because he always had a longing for an adventure. But he was never able to due to his family, it was obvious that Alex wanted to leave them and explore the wild without any responsibilities and judgement from others. He wanted to reinvent a new life, where he could be himself and be free to do anything he

Alex is a young man who seems to be very well educated but does something that gives him the allusion of a "nutcase." Since he seems to be well educated, Alex has probably lived most his life studying and staying in school to learn but never got a chance to experience life outside of his town.The book states that he had not talked to his parents for two years for reasons unknown and it could be suspected that he then realized that this was his chance to escape into the wilderness and live off the land for as long as he wanted to. He seems determined and excited to finally be out on his own which means that he wont give up easy and unfortunately might push himself past his limits and lead him to death. His lack of care about the rules of the

Prior to this moment, Alex is released from an experimental rehabilitation treatment to make him incapable of doing wrong. Alex has a solid commitment to the ideals of violence and has aesthetic pleasure he takes in his crimes. The delight he finds in classical music closely relates to the joy he feels during acts of violence and elevates his brutal behaviour. He believes evil represents a natural state for human beings. The State, who seeks to deny him of the decisions to act cruelly, encroaches on his freedom as a person. Thus, in choosing savagery, Alex ultimately affirms his sense of self. He never truly understands his entitlement. At the end of the treatment, he deprives the ability to make moral choices

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.

In the classic novel, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, a theme emerges. This is the theme of free will. Through the main character, Alex, Burgess is able to convey his ideas about free will and the oppressive nature of establishments such as governments and the media. Aside from these suggestions made by Burgess the question persists: When a man ceases to choose, is he still a man?

“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.

as an evil trait, but his love for music symbolises his human side.  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.

I think that A Clockwork Orange is a book worth reading because it is relatable, makes you think, and is interesting. The author, Anthony Burgess, was born February 25, 1917. At the young age of two his mother passed away. He was brought up by his aunt and later his stepmother. Even with such an unstable childhood Burgess continued on to enroll in college and major in English. He had a passion for music, which he expressed in the main character of A Clockwork Orange. Burgess wrote several accomplished symphonies in his day, as well as over fifty books. He was diagnoses with a brain tumor at about age 40 but well outlived his doctor’s expectations continuing his artistic output until his death from lung cancer at age 76.

Alex’s music-dream in prison, after the beating of the new perverted cheloveck, also demonstrates the unifying effect group violence has on identity. Although Alex seems to beat the pervert by himself, the participation in the beating leaves him unable to escape the group identity forged through violence. Immediately following this violent incident Alex dreams that he "was in some very big orchestra, hundreds and hundreds…" Once again, the consequence of violence is that he loses his own nature and becomes one unit of an extremely large group, under the direction of an all-powerful conductor. Not only does Alex lose his individual identity in becoming a member of the orchestra, but he completely loses his humanity by becoming an actual instrument, and object, a thing. The musicians in an orchestra might be able to salvage a tiny bit of room for individual self-identity, but an instrument is restricted to sharing its identity with all the other inanimate instruments of the orchestra. The Minister of the Interior’s statement in reference to "common criminals like this unsavory crowd” confirms Alex’s subsidence into group identity, in a similar manner to that of his dream.

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