Essay on The Need for Brutality in A Clockwork Orange

         Not only does A Clockwork Orange present Burgess' view on behavior science, but it also contains an invented language mixed in with English. Being well educated and having a background in languages such as Russian, German, and French, Burgess created a language known as Nadsat.  Nadsat is influenced by Russian, German, English, Cockney Slang, and it also contains invented slang. The language has a poetic feel to it and Burgess' writing contains context clues that help the reader determine what the unknown language means.  The history of what

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

Besides presenting utter terror and an extremely innovative approach to the use of language, A Clockwork Orange manages to be extremely philosophical. As Alex encounters different people throughout his process of becoming a better person through tests and manipulation, he encounters the issue of whether or not it is better to live a life of crime than to be forced into not doing so. The question presented by these various people, the main proponent of the belief being the jail chaplain, is that if a man can no longer make that decision, one which could possibly be the most colossal decision of Alex’s life, can he be considered a man? Alex eventually answers

The most troubling omission is reference to the title. The novel actually uses the phrase “like clockwork orange.” First Alex sees the words in the HOME cottage, and then he regurgitates them back in appropriate context when he feels as though the correction system is mistreating him. This emphasizes the topic of moral choice mentioned throughout the novel. The author stressed the importance of moral choice but the screenwriter labeled the topic minutia and only gave a slight shout-out to it within a short monologue from the prison Charlie on Alex’s fourteenth day

A Clockwork Orange is a movie that is number 46 on AFI’s list of 100 movies. I feel it is a relevant movie dealing with youths who just want to act out, murder, and rape on a society that has become too complacent.

As time progresses and social environments change, the standards of proper moral conscience and mental health begin to change. Alex, the protagonist of A Clockwork Orange, is a person who by modern ethical standards is a psychopath with no moral conscience. The lack of proper authority in the future version of England presented in A Clockwork Orange allows for the prevalence of pseudo-families that act as the main influences on the lifestyles of teenagers such as Alex. Alex explains within the first page of the novel how he and his “three droogs” spent a lot of time “making up [their minds] what to do with” their almost unlimited free time (A Clockwork Orange 3). During their escapades, they commit crimes such as robbery, assault, rape, and eventually,

The power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. Drugs, rape, and ultra-violence, example nature vs. nurture in Anthony Burgess's’, A Clockwork Orange. In England's dystopian futuristic world, fifteen year old Alex and his “droogs”, go on atrocity sprees at night for their own pleasure. This book gives off the topic “whether or not to be evil by choice or nature to be good against one’s will.”

     The film, “A Clockwork Orange,” is, to me, an almost exact replica of today’s society. Basically, one kid, who seems to have come from a financially sound home and community, goes through about three stages--1. He violates the laws society has set forth to maintain order. 2. He is caught and punished for his crimes against society. 3. He feels remorse for his violence and sexually deviance (although, at the end of the film, he’s back to his old, delinquent self).

A Clockwork Orange by itself can be analyzed and marveled at due to its incredible directing, beautiful and symmetrical cinematography, and the oddly captivating dialogue that sometimes makes the viewer question if what they are hearing is even a language. Moreover, is the actions and events that transpire in the life of Alex, a self proclaimed “Droog” and blatant sociopath that steal the attention of whoever is watching. Alex lives the life of a social miscreant whose sole purpose is to disturb society with physical violence, rape, and murder. Living carefreely with his band of followers with the intent of just doing whatever the hell they deem satisfying while sitting back and drinking a nice glass of milk (Moloko Plus, which is a

The plot in Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange is structured in a unique style. Burgess divides the novel into three parts. In part one, Alex is involved in brutal crimes. In part two, Alex is imprisoned for the crimes he committed and is forced to endure behavioral treatment. In part three, Alex is interested in living a peaceful life that does not involve crime (Goh 1). Burgess’s organization and creativity influences the aspects of the plot.

In A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Alex, the protagonist is a fifteen-year-old boy who commits ultra-violent acts out of pure pleasure. The allegory present throughout the novel shows that Alex is ruthless and does not feel pain when experiencing the deaths of others. Throughout the journey of a small portion of Alex’s life, vivid representations of settings are used to portray the dark deeds done by Alex and his friends. Burgess also uses distinct dialect to individualize Alex and his friends from the rest of the community to represent their violent actions with their dialect. He uses a configuration of symbolism to represent the violent nature of Alex’s surroundings which cause him to commit these violent actions throughout the story. Through the use of these elements, Burgess proves how violence becomes a crucial element of surviving amongst society.

Olsen claims that Burgess is trying to point out that Alex is only human so long as he keeps his free choice, and when conditioned, he is “reduced to nothing.” He analyses how the title A Clockwork Orange means “something with it’s essential nature missing,” and how this supports this theme. He also considers how the omission of the last chapter (in which Alex freely chooses to reform, rather than being forced) changes the theme.

“Nevertheless, when the first American edition of A Clockwork Orange was published in 1963, it had not only a glossary but an afterword by Stanley Edgar Hyman. The glossary confirms the preponderance of Slavic-based or more particularly Russian-based coinages, and the afterword still stands as the most comprehensive discussion of nadsat. Even though Hyman surprisingly confesses himself unable to read Burgess's book without

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

The language used in literary compositions serve functional purposes that portray the author’s intensions (Simpson, 1997:8). Barrère (1889:xiii) defines Argot as a bastardized language used villains, whom enjoy sinful or bloody acts of human anguish, disguised by veiled humour. The author, Antony Burgess named his Argot- Nadsat. Defined in Burgess’ novella by Dr. Branom as "Odd bits of rhyming slang,” "a bit of gipsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav. Propaganda. Subliminal penetration” (Burgess, 2011:86). In Burgess’s novella, A Clockwork Orange, the Argot is used for alienation, to buffer the violence and to characterize the protagonist. In this essay it will be proven that in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaption of the novella, Kubrick