The Clockwork Orange Research Paper
The Clockwork Orange unfolds in the streets of a dark, mysterious, futuristic city. Alex, the 15 year old leader of a violent gang that goes on a rampage involving: mugging, a convenience store robbery, a rival gang fight, grand theft auto, gang rapes, vandalism, and arson. Alex who entice himself with all these violent acts eventually gets jailed for his crimes. Alex will undergo in a "reform" treatment called Ludovico's Technique. A behavioral-brainwashing procedure involving certain types of elements to his learning, the treatment would last roughly two weeks, after which the criminal is to be completely unable to even think of committing crime either so complete one. Alex will change his way of
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“on one hand, Burgess answers these paradoxes through nineteenth century existentialism of writers like Nietzsche and Kierkegaard who dealt with freedom and free-will not in historic, but in metaphysical context.”(Hyman 25). Burgess uses nadsat in different meaning as well. Nadsat also has a type of onomatopoeic quality. That is, the words sound like the actions they describe. Nadsat is also often highly metaphoric and ironic. The word "cancer," for example, means to smoke or cigarette and the word "horrorshow" means beautiful. Burgess with his nadsat language, onomatopoetic quality, word diction, and his use of his nadsat language that ties in with his metaphoric and ironic styles that will set him different from the rest.
The characterization of the book will begin with the nadsat language and how this will have a cause effect to the development of the book. Nadsat is spoken by the younger generation or teens and is bashfully un-recognized by the adults and as well as the more successful, sophisticated type of the futuristic people Thus, the spoken language generally divides opposing types of characters: the young and the old, the violent and the peaceful, the helpless children and the oppressive authorities. Alex will speak and think in both dialects, switching between them in the book. This shows that he belongs to both worlds the adult and the teen world or,
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
Choice and free will are necessary to maintain humanity, both individually and communally; without them, man is no longer human but a “clockwork orange”, a mechanical toy, as demonstrated in Anthony Burgess’ novel, “A Clockwork Orange”. The choice between good and evil is a decision every man must make throughout his life in order to guide his actions and control his future. Forcing someone to be good is not as important as the act of someone choosing to be good. This element of choice, no matter what the outcome, displays man’s power as an individual.
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
However, youth like Alex cannot be caught in the expected rubric of life and hence, they retaliate. Nevertheless, one cannot justify Alex’s actions worth applauding but Burgess seems to favour their actions as the only possible outlet for suppressed angst. In the first act, fourth chapter, Alex says,
Burgess chose to use Nadsat throughout A Clockwork Orange in order to give his audience a small experience with brainwashing. Burgess himself says that through the use of many Russian-like words, his readers will be forced to learn minimal Russian (Craik 51). After Burgess repeats words like "gulliver," "otchkies," and "devotchka," his readers begin to remember what these strange words mean, and therefore learn a new language. Without knowing it, the readers have taken part in a type of linguistic programming, and they are able to see first hand just what Alex undergoes in A Clockwork Orange (Craik 51). Burgess uses words very similar to their Russian counterparts. For example, the word "horrorshow" from the novel, which means good, comes from the Russian word khorosho. The word liudi, translates to "lewdies," meaning people. Because these words are so similar to the Russian words they come from, readers of A Clockwork Orange should be able to recognize small amounts of
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.
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
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.
Aubrey Morris passed away at the age of 89, the BBC July 17, 2015 reported. Aubrey is best remembered for his role in the 1971 show “A Clockwork Orange” where he played P.R. Deltoid. Aubrey was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire to Morry and Becky Steinberg. His father served in the First World War, but an injury left him in the car of his family, who had to care for him until he passed away. His mother taught her kids to appreciate the arts. He had eight brothers and sisters. Two of his sisters, Julia and Sonia became professional dancers. One brother, Wolfe, became a character actor. Aubrey attended the Portsmouth Municipal College. During that time, he was a part of the Portsmouth Guildhall annual festival of music and drama. His talent won him
By examining Anthony Burgess’s, A Clockwork Orange, one can see that the imagery of the prison, the imagery of the treatment, and the irony of life after the treatment, demonstrate the government’s monstrous control of the people in society, can have ripple effects on the individual. Even when Alex was good he never fit in the monster of a society around him, and reverted to being himself, no matter how he fits into
In A Clockwork Orange this was a very complex piece of literature narrated by a boy named Alex. In the span of his adolescent life we learn of a very tragic time in Alex's life. Compared to the movie the book even though foul and vuglar, made me less uncomfortable than the movie. One difference this is a huge difference in A Clockwork Orange when Alex is in prison for about two years now he finds out that Georgie was killed because of a heist that turned south. Now, in the film Alex after being reformed and released into the world. He ends up getting beaten up by a group of homeless old men lead by the first guy Alex and his had beaten up. The police are called and Alex seems to recognize them, its Dim and Georgie his ex friends. Now that's a huge difference a character killed off now has a second chance at life. Another difference is what occurs after. Now after an unpleasant reunion between friends or should I say ex friends. Alex is beaten up and soaking wet he seeks help and ends up getting help from an unlikely ally. The man who helps Alex is unfortunately another victim of what Alex and his friends did for fun. They had beat up the husband who is a writer; they raped the wife while he was focused to watch and now confined to a wheelchair. Now fast forward, while Alex is taking a bath to warm up he's singing the sake song that one of the intruders we're singing while this terrible tragedy took place. Now in this example these, are subtle but,
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.
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