Imagine having stolen, raped, and even murdered all at the age of 15. The new canon of dark literature and controversy has finally hit the stage. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess written in 1962 could only be described in the old cockney expression “queer as a clockwork orange”. Meaning it is bizarre internally, but appears natural on the surface. The story begins with the protagonist and narrator Alex a 15-year-old boy, who sets the bar for the most cold-blooded and callous characters of literature
Anthony Burgess’ novel, A Clockwork Orange has been called shocking, controversial, and horrifying. A Clockwork Orange is controversial, but to focus merely on the physical aspects of the work is time wasted. Burgess is concerned with the issue of ethics. He believes that goodness comes directly from choice; it is better to choose the bad than to be forced into doing the good. For taking away a person’s free will is simply turning them into a piece of “clockwork”; a piece of machine containing
actually derived from the also Greek ou-, meaning no. In short: the meaning of the word utopia is no place. Utopia does not exist. Works of dystopian fiction such as Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Kurt Wimmer's Equilibrium, and Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange seem to revel in this fact, creating dystopian worlds born with the intent of being utopias, but falling short in one crucial area or another, driving home a common theme: an ostensibly utopian society cannot be achieved without the sacrifice
A Brave New World and a Clockwork Orange Although the novels A Clockwork Orange and A Brave New World were written almost thirty years apart, they still share many similarities. The books satirically address society’s desires versus individuality, using the author’s perception of humankind’s future. Inspiration from each of the authors time periods were used to create the characters in the novels. Interestingly, both authors saw the future as Utopian style society where individuality was sacrificed
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
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
the film narrative is perceived as less powerful as the novella. In the book, Alex’s narration accentuates his cruelty, pleasure, and lack of remorse. His pleasure is highlighted in the book displaying his dark thoughts, making the novella A Clockwork Orange appear to be a more grotesque piece in language than the film. This is evident in an act of violence, the raping of two ten-year-old girls. In the film, Alex has what appears to be consensual sex with two women around or a few youngers than himself
a man who has good imposed on him?”(Burgess 106). After having read, A Clockwork Orange, the reader will most likely answer “yes” to this question. After examining Alex both pre- and post- conditioned, it is clear that when Alex choose to be bad, he was more self-confident and independent (qualities modern society contributes to a valuable member of the world) than his conditioned counterpart. Burgess used, A Clockwork Orange, as an outlet for “his oft-expressed anxieties about the future” (Rieff
Free Will in Humans In the novel, A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess argues how free will is empowered by society and the government. Through the character Alex, the author is able to explicate his ideas of how the government strips Alex’s freewill while being in presence of violence in order to force him to be good. But is Alex still considered human without choice? Is goodness considered good when it is not chosen? People have the right to choose right from wrong on their own, just like Alex
A Clockwork Orange is a film about Alex DeLarge, ( the main character of the movie, played by Malcolm Mcdowell) a teenage boy who is the leader of a gang. Alex, along with his three droogs, (Pete, Georgie, and Dim), go around town performing vicious acts of violence against society, such as beating helpless tramps and raping women. Unfortunately for Alex, his droogs aren't too happy with his ruling. As the movie goes on they begin to rebel against him. Of course, our friend Alex, like any other