A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Alex, a teenager who speaks in a marvellously innovative lingo that evocatively conveys his and his companions’ furious reaction against his society, is the main character in Anthony Burgess’s influential nightmare picture of the future, where criminals take over after dark. A Clockwork Orange is a menacing parable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom that is dazzling and provocative.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
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Little Alex has a good mother and father, lives in a good flat, and is in a good neighbourhood. Yet for tiny Alex, it’s insufficient. Tiny Alex enjoys performing some extreme violence with his droogs every night, but it’s not just bloodletting, oh no. It is more complex than that. Alex is intelligent, enjoys classical music, and even at the age of 15, he gives his misdeeds a frightening edge. He tries everything, including beating, slashing, raping, and stealing, until one day he makes the fatal error of killing. This is a steep slope that brings him to an institution where some very intriguing new methods of treatment are tested on him, and lo and behold
At least three facets of society are clearly targets of the satire in this book, which includes sections on each of them:
The first part of the novel takes aim at Alex and his cronies’ decision to voluntarily indulge in hooliganism and senseless criminality for no other reason than that they can—concepts of “free will” are thoroughly probed in this book. Alex takes great pleasure in it, elevates himself as a result, and offers no excuses. Alex isn’t intended to be likeable; he’s neither the protagonist nor the antagonist; he’s just Alex, and he used his free will in a way that wasn’t exactly as we would have liked to see him.
The second section criticizes other power systems, corrupt governments, and what they do with their authority when unchecked. After being just imprisoned for his crimes, Alex learns of a novel experimental strategy for “reforming” convicts such that they never commit another crime. This is done ostensibly to lessen the load on the criminal justice system. Actually, it’s a creepy and intrusive behavioural control method that stifles Alex’s capacity to enjoy life at all, whether it be innocuous or criminal. It goes far further than simply eliminating his criminal tendencies. He was passionate about classical music before the “therapy,” but now he can’t stand it. Far more troubling than anything Alex has ever done is what they are doing to “fix” him.
The third section examines anti-government organizations and how they make use of—and frequently mistreat—people. following his release from jail. Eventually, Alex finds himself in the company of the man he severely harmed in the previous section as well as two other men who work for an anti-government group. However, a combination of Alex’s former victim eventually realizing Alex for who he really is and Alex later attempting to take his own life sees the anti-government movement abandon Alex almost as quickly as they rallied around him. At first, they see Alex as a potential “poster boy” for their cause and intend to use him as evidence to the public of how evil the government is. They were just interested in him as a tool to forward their agenda.
