Essay on The Need for Brutality in A Clockwork Orange

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.”

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.

         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

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 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).

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.

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,

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.

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

Davis presents the anti-ethics and pseudo-family in Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. Throughout the novel the protagonist, Alex, yearns for a functioning family that he cannot abandon. Alex’s ethical transition is also evident throughout A Clockwork Orange. In 1987, the novel’s twenty-first chapter was added to the American edition of A Clockwork Orange. Without the twenty-first chapter, the novel’s narrative excludes the protagonist’s ethical transformation. In addition, without the twenty-first chapter, readers fail to see Burgess’s own reaction of the pseudo-families that burdens the narrator during his youth. With the addition of the twenty-first chapter, readers can perceive the effects of anti-ethics and pseudo-families in A Clockwork

Stanley Kubrick released a film adaptation of the successful book of the same title by Anthony Burgess in 1971. The very opening of the film sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The movie opens in a bar where milk is served with drugs in it, and the general setting of the bar is very raunchy with sexual sculptures composing the furniture of the establishment. These aspects all set up a general theme of social decay that accompanies the rest of the film. Within the first ten minutes our drugged up protagonist followed by his fellow hoodlums have begun terrorizing other people as well as gangs. What makes “A Clockwork Orange” so complex is that it fails to establish a clear good side within its world. Alex Delarge, the main protagonist, is captured for his crimes after a betrayal and is sentenced to prison. He participates in a government sponsored program to be released early on the grounds that he completes the rehabilitation process. The method utilized is seen as inhumane as we realize that it effectively strips the prisoner of their personal freedom to choose between right and wrong. Alex literally becomes ill at the sight of violence and can’t choose anything but to be passive lest he should become sick. The film becomes a slippery slope of what lengths will we go to in relinquishing our freedoms to be safe. There’s the moral dilemma present that Alex’s former victims turn and beat him savagely upon encountering him again.

“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

What is the author’s purpose for writing a novel? To make a point? To make money? The case for Anthony Burgess’s novel, A Clockwork Orange is much larger: to lend insight into human nature, most specifically, moral development. Burgess stacks the entirety of this concept in a single chapter, the controversial twenty-first, using it to transform the entire meaning of the novel. When first published in 1961, the American edition of A Clockwork Orange omits this critical part, making it more to the likes of an allegory or fable rather than a novel. Burgess was understandably very displeased with his American publisher, and expresses his indignation in his revised 1983 introduction, stating that there is “not much point in writing a novel unless you can show the possibility of moral transformation.” When a work fails to show change (as the American first edition does) it merely portrays human character as cold, rigid, unregenerable, not at all what Burgess intended. But would this be such an inaccurate portrayal of humanity? Yes. As circumstances change, so do people. Why? Free will. Free will is what allows one to choose between good and evil, and as circumstances change so do the choices, and with each decision, a step further into one's moral development, for the better or for the worse. Though in Alex’s case he is stripped of his ability to choose under the Ludovico technique. Without his free will, any chance of moral development is, in turn, essentially impossible. But

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