preview

Analysis Of Racisus Christ In John BurgessBy Alex Burgess

Decent Essays

Burgess uses Alex as a symbol of Jesus Christ. Although a connection between a murdering rapist and Christ appears implausible, beneath the surface of the novel Christ provides an undeniable analogy for Alex’s life. The three parts of the novel parallel Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as Alex is captured, buried in prison, and returns to his previous state of mind after nearly dying. Alex’s resemblance to Christ is often alluded to throughout the novel, such as when Dr. Brodsky says that Alex “will be your true Christian,… ready to turn the other cheek, ready to be crucified rather than crucify” (126). The comparison between Alex and Christ proves an important part of the plot as it adds significance to Alex’s attempted suicide. His attempted suicide is no longer meaningless, but rather a sacrifice to expose the evils of the government. The drug-laced milk represents the conformity of the populace. Due to its use to nourish the young, milk is often seen as a symbol of immaturity and passivity. However, Burgess distorts this common symbol by having the milk be tainted with drugs. In this way, the milk comes to represent not the passivity of adolescence, but rather the conformity of the conditioned. When Alex is sitting in the Korova Milkbar, he says, “I’d got to thinking [drinking the milk] was a cowardly sort of a vesch… You’d lay there after you’d drunk the old moloko and then you got the messel that everything all around you was sort of in the past…. And you were

Get Access