A Clockwork Orange Dialectical Journal Essay

Compiled upon the movie-galvanized image of the novel, the handiwork of ignorant critics cements Orange's reputation as a phantasmagoria of sex and violence. An anonymous reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement once labeled the tome "a nasty little shocker" (qtd. in Burgess, "A Clockwork Orange: A play with music"), and the pithy epithet now graces the cover of the novel's most recent American printing. Yet, through it all, the author maintains that he took no pleasure in documenting Alex's brutality and even invented Nadsat in an effort to make the violence symbolic (Burgess, Contemporary Literary Criticism 38). He never seeks to justify Alex's actions and believes that his crimes "must be checked and punished" in a "properly run society" (Burgess, Contemporary Literary Criticism 38). In addition, Burgess bases the most horrific scene in the novel -- the rape of the writer's wife -- on personal experience. During a

         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

Anthony Burgess's writing style in his most famous novel, A Clockwork Orange, is different to say the least. This novel is praised for its ingenuity, although many are disturbed by Burgess's predictions for the future. However, for many, it is close to impossible to comprehend without outside help. This is because Burgess created a language specifically for this novel, called Nadsat. This Russian-based language forms conversations between the narrator, Alex, and his teenage, delinquent friends. There are many assumptions as to why Burgess chose to complicate A Clockwork Orange by filling it with the confusing Nadsat language. Some opinions are that the language shows A Clockwork Orange readers

Imagine a violence filled society where young gangsters run rampant and crime is at every corner. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, presents a futuristic society where ordinary people find themselves the targets of violent crime. Among these gangsters is fifteen year old Alex and his band of “droogs.” Alex and his gang of troublemakers spend their days robbing and beating up innocent men and women they encounter, all while assuming they are invincible to the consequences that could come. However, Alex’s actions catch up with him one day when he is imprisoned for assaulting a woman.

Stanley Edger Hyman, in his efforts to add a glossary and afterword, may not have effectively cheapened the novel, but it certainly takes something away from its meaning when every single word that was meant to be understood through context is highlighted, boldfaced, and slapped with a Webster's-safe dictionary definition. Reading Burgess's A Clockwork Orange is a deceptively easy task when compared to reading the likes of Shakespeare or Marlowe. A good amount of the work involved in reading Burgess' famous novel is the use of contextual perception. One word expressed one way can convey no sense of what its meaning is, but when used in another fashion it becomes decipherable. In the introduction to Stanley Edgar Hyman's Nadsat dictionary, he says:

Although some of these predictions do come true, the violence that happens is not a result of the boys’ young age, for the adults in this novel are just as savage. Society would explain their war-like attitudes with the

Thus, the fictional is mostly referred as nadsat. It is seen only used by this specific subculture marking the distinction between the teenagers and adults, whom only use simple English. Upon first glance, the most discernible aspect of Anthony Burgess’s novella A Clockwork Orange is the extensive use of fabricated vocabulary forming a language called ‘nadsat’ as the narrative

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.

I am going to write about the way that Kubrick achieves the same effect with the language in the film, A Clockwork Orange, without using the language that Anthony Burgess uses in the and also how he gets the same effect without using language as Anthony Burgess does to get the reaction out of the readers. Kubrick uses the protagonist of both the film, Alex, and his gang to show the violence that we can see in the novel through the use of language. In the beginning of the movie Alex and his gang run violently through the streets of their city and commit all kind of violent things that includes them raping a woman.

Burgess believed that adding a glossary to help define the slang used in A Clockwork Orange would have somehow cheapened it, and it most certainly would have. He evens admits to brainwashing his readers just for the sake of what he called an “exercise in linguistic programming.” Without even realizing it, the readers of A Clockwork Orange were Burgess’ guinea pigs. It was, however, a successful experiment. Burgess achieved the sense that he was trying to convey, and readers understood the language without too much difficulty. That is, of course, until the book was published in America. Roger Craik comments on this linguistic phenomina in his critical essay on A Clockwork Orange.

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.

Burgess also manipulates language in A Clockwork Orange in more traditional ways, in the form of literary and linguistic devices. The novel is saturated with irony and dark humor, dotted with repetition, and laced with word play.

     A Clockwork Orange is a novel about moral choice and free will. Alex’s story shows what happens when an individual’s right to choose is robbed for the good of society. The first and last chapters place Alex in more or less the same physical situation but his ability to exercise free will leads him to diametrically opposite choices—good versus evil. The phrase, “what’s it going to be then, eh?,” echoes throughout the book; only at the end of the novel is the moral metamorphosis complete and Alex is finally able to answer the question, and by doing so affirms his freedom of choice. The capacity to choose freely is the attribute that distinguishes

Set in a dystopian future, where juvenile delinquency rules the streets during the nights, Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange is known worldwide for being a controversial piece of literature advocating violence, sex, and extreme terror. Alex, the main protagonist in Burgess’ narrative, and his droogs* are part of a youth subculture in this dystopian universe. The gangs within this fictitious subculture are highly reminiscent of the British Teddy Boys and the Mods, and Rockers movement. However, though many still ponder, it is yet to be known what Anthony Burgess’ true purpose was when writing this monstrous narrative.

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