Power of Choice in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange Essay

Good and evil have existed since the beginning of mankind. Good defends the righteous, as evil has been bent on destruction. In today’s society, many people believe that good will always triumph over evil. The murderer will eventually be caught by the police; the carjacker will one day meet his doom; the superhero will defeat the evil villain. Simply, in some circumstances, this is not entirely true. Good does not always prevail over evil. This is exceptionally true in the movie No Country for Old Men by the Coen brothers. The dominant theme in the Coen brother’s movie is evil.

Sentence structure and the organization of certain passages of both books connects strongly to the characters loss of power and ultimately the loss of themselves. In part one of A Clockwork Orange Alex tends to speak in more confident, well articulated sentences that convey a relaxed yet still controlling tone: “‘You understand about the tolchock on the rot, Dim. It was the music, see. I get all be zooming when any veck interfere with a ptitsa singing, as it might be. Like that then’” (Burgess 34). The sentences are short or medium sentences ended with periods. This sentence structure displayed in part one compared to the sentence structure of part two and three it's obvious to the reader that there is a change in Alex the way that he talks

Inside each of us, there is a seed of good and evil since it is a constant struggle for us to

Good and evil; two simple words that hold an infinite amount of power. Though they are similar in this aspect, it is a compelling argument that ‘evil’ is stronger and more powerful than ‘good.’ William Shakespeare wrote in his play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.” As true as this quote is, the fictional and modern proof accentuates the veracity of the statement.

There is a lot of evil in the world, and much of it happens unexplainably. In the history of life on Earth bad things have happened and evil has caused problems. In relation to some world

music seemed to be merely an excuse for the life he led. It sounded just that

Through the intertwined symbolism of darkness and light, Wells leads readers to the conclusion that good and evil are inseparable in the human psyche.

evil creates or brings good. Yet, if there was only good we would not have to

Richard Swinburne as well as J.L Mackie discuss solutions to the problem of evil and provide explanations and alternatives to specific problems in the problem of evil. Mackie doesn’t completely argue against evil in this world but allows for God to intervene in particular evils, and not allow circumstances to get too horrid. Swinburne on the other hand explains that we need these evils in this world to appreciate the beneficial times, and if God did intervene and not allow awful consequences and natural evils then life would be too easy for us. I think that Swinburne’s argument is more compelling because with God allowing us free will we should have the choice to make our own decisions. I know that there are horrific means that stem from our free will and own choices, but I believe that it’s best that way and that gives us meaning to life, and lets us decide the type of person we want to be and not controlled by our

“The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft’ interred with their bones”. The evil that one decides to do will be on their own conscious although it will still affect the people around them.

“ Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”(Golding, 186) Who is the beast, is it each other? This is a question left on page 186. Each boy is battling for a position of some power by degrading and openly challenging others. They would do this to establish a sense of self and confidence. In the book a position of power is constantly fought over, and was gained by many means even violent ones. Throughout the book the author, William Golding, demonstrates the positive and negative effects of Glasser’s choice theory through the actions of the characters.

Sophocles: Precisely. Man adopts evil when he performs actions that go against what is right. In this way, a man knows what he is doing is wrong and still chooses to do so anyway. I reason that in this way, the Form of Evil is not below the Form of the Good. A man does progress through the lower forms, reach the form of the evil, and then choose the Form of the Good, does he? No. Instead, he reaches the Form of the Good and chooses to do evil. Therefore, the Form of the Good and the Form of the Evil are connected.

Postmodern epistemology denies the presence of a binary relationship between good and evil. Due to the lack of an absolute truth, good and bad must be relative. In “The Genealogy of Morals: Good and Evil,' 'Good and Bad’", Nietzsche compares what he calls a slave morality, with an apposing master morality. Master morality is the philosophy of the strong and healthy free people, who see their own happiness as good, while seeing those who are weak, unhealthy or enslaved as "bad," because of their deficiencies. On the other hand, oppressed slaves, called those who ruled "evil," and themselves "good". The words evil and good in affect are employed in order to frame a social hierarchy that distinguished the powerful and the weak in a way that could

“ Inside each of us there is the seed of both good and evil. It is a consistent struggle as to which one will win. One cannot exist without the other.” – Eric Burdon

In Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, the theme of good versus evil is repeatedly portrayed in several different characters throughout the story. A debated question has arose and surrounded the topic of dual mortality and choosing between good and evil. The question is: Do you have the ability to choose between good and evil, or does one or the another choose your path for you? I believe that good and evil are rooted inside you from the moment you are born, but you have the ability to choose what you desire to become.