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Free Will In A Clockwork Orange

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It is interesting how one's free will can be so easily altered by the people around them, but also how necessary it is to have your own commitments that shape your own standards. Anthony Burgess, the author of A Clockwork Orange, revisits the theme of free will and commitments to life commonly in his novel. Fifteen-year-old Alex takes advantage of his free will until suddenly, acts of betrayal from people around him whom he used to trust, steer his life in a very different direction. If Alex was given the opportunity to choose his life path, unaffected by others, he would have never accepted what he was led to. Acts of betrayal upon Alex contribute to the overall theme of the inviolability of free will and the necessity of commitment in life. …show more content…

After a night out of stealing and intoxication, Alex returns home for a night of sleep in his parents' home. Alex's parents, Pee and Em, are mostly unaware of Alex's behaviors such as, his whereabouts and doings on nights he spends raping and abusing random people. Alex wakes up to his mom making a brief effort to get him to go to school: "'It's gone eight, son. You don't want to be late again.' So I [Alex] called back: 'A bit of pain in my gulliver. Leave us be and I'll try to sleep it off and then I'll be right as dodges for this after.' I slooshied her give a sort of a sigh-"1 Em required little convincing to believe that Alex was sick, and she didn't even enter his room to check on him. This can be classified as bad parenting and an act of betrayal to Alex because his parents allow him to skip school time and time again. On many nights Alex leaves his house with his droogs to go get high and commit crimes. If his parents kept a tight handle on him, he may be more inclined to make better choices. That same night, Alex is on his way out of the house to get together with his friends. Alex's father, Pee, stops him to talk about a dream he had where Alex was still at his old school caught up in nonsense. He says he is proud of Alex for working with his probation officer, P.R. Deltoid, but he doesn't want to see him return to …show more content…

The window in the room where I had laid down was open. I ittied to it and viddied a fair drop to the autos and buses and walking chellovecks below. I creeched out to the world: 'Good-bye. Good-bye, may Bog forgive you for a ruined life.' Then I got on to the sill, the music blasting away to my left, and I shut my glazzies and felt the cold wind on my litso, then I jumped."9

Once again, due to the governments mistake of including classical music during the Ludovico Technique Alex sees no value in his life. While being tortured yet again, Alex has no means to put up with it, so he gives up completely on every commitment in his life and attempts suicide. Granted that Alex's free will is jeopardized by the governments use of the Ludovico Technique and that he is now incapable of listening to classical music because of their mistake, he attempts suicide, exemplifying how the government influenced Alex's free will and commitment in

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