Essays on A Clockwork Orange

The Not-So-Unalienable Right: Free Will In the words of Sophocles, "All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil." It has always been argued that when you take away a person's decision to choose between good and evil in life, the person ceases to have any more meaning than lesser animals. In Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange the main character, Alex, undergoes this ordeal when the government takes away his unalienable right of choosing…

Alienation under a Totalitarian Government: The Nonconformist as a Victim The dystopian novel, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, explores the effects of oppression on the youth when it is subject to the confiscation of moral choice. Burgess uses a variety of motifs that make the main character’s acts seem more normal than they really are, such as the use of Nadsat and the protagonist’s obsession with classical music. The main character, Alex, is shown to be normal on the…

Destructive Human Nature The theory of art begins with all people but focuses on one group of people: artists. Among artists, we have authors who develop a world view, or set of beliefs about life, and choose to express their world views in their artwork. In order to understand an artist’s intent of their expression, we need to look at the tools that authors use to express their world view through literature including character, symbol, and theme. With the theory…

Human Instincts As humans, we are biologically conceived with natural human instincts. Human instincts allow us to survive as hunter-gatherers in a pre-civilized or underdeveloped world. The purpose of human instincts is to protect us against threatening people, places, or things. The basic human instincts include reproduction instincts, fear instincts, and security instincts. Influenced by the European Industrialization, many underdeveloped countries started establishing economies and trade systems, which allowed humans to move away from “hunter-gatherers,” thus changing how our instincts…

Anthony Burgesses novel, A Clockwork Orange, is a dystopian novel comparable to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Brave New World is ultimately about the depersonalisation of human characteristics and the loss of humanity in the face of instant gratification while A Clockwork Orange explores the life of violent teenager Alex and the States determination to control him. Both Huxley’s and Burgess’s novels explore the social issue of drug use in order to escape from reality and the oppression of individuality…

A Clockwork Orange tells the tale of a man named Alex who uses his personal power and desire to do all kinds of violence during his youth. However, his violence ends after being arrested and placed in a Reclamation Treatment program where his violent acts and behaviors are destroyed through psychological and medical procedures. After being released, Alex goes back to normal life but his old-friends-turned-enemies attack him for all his violent actions against his victims. In the end, he…

Literature has long served as a mirror to society, reflecting its virtues, vices, and intricacies. Anthony Burgess' novel "A Clockwork Orange," published in 1962, stands as a poignant example of how literature can function as a powerful voice of social commentary. This dystopian work delves into themes of free will, morality, government control, and the impact of behavioral conditioning. Burgess masterfully crafts a narrative that not only captivates readers but also offers a critical examination of the human condition and…

A night out for Alex, the “[h]umble [n]arrator” (Burgess 69) of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and proud participant in the trends of “nadsat” (teenage) (125) culture, involves the usual shenanigans of “assualt, rape, and robbery”(Cullinan). While this behavior is startlingly gruesome, Alex and his “droogs” (friends) at least draw the line at murder, until one accidental misstep that lands him on track to a punishment far worse than time behind bars (Burgess 3). After hearing of a seemingly perfect…

Introduction A Clockwork Orange received critical acclaim, made more than thirty million dollars at the box office, and was nominated for various awards; however, this esteemed film was outlawed from the nation of Great Britain in order to curb its immoral content from permeating society. Before all the controversy began, A Clockwork Orange was a novel, written mostly in Russian, by Anthony Burgess. Stanley Kubrick is known to critics as a film maker who probes the dark side of human…

A developmental study of the character Alex in Stanley Kubrick's production "A Clockwork Orange" In A Clockwork Orange, the main character is that of a mildly young child of 15 who, along with his fellow friends, or "Droogs", partake in evenings of Ultra-Violence. Ultra Violence consists of random beatings, theft, destruction, and rape. The main character, Alex, is the self-proclaimed leader of the pack, and makes judgment on their actions pending on his mood. His Droogs eventually find themselves under…

The extract we are presented with shows us the scene in part one of 'A Clockwork Orange' when Alex and his 'droogs' rape an innocent young woman, referred to in the extract as a 'devotchka'. The extract elucidates the title of the novella as here the husband of the young woman is writing a story called 'A Clockwork Orange'. The manuscript of the story explains that the sweet, orange-ness of humans can be converted into the lifelessness of a manufactured…

A review of the book "A Clockwork Orange" focussing on the abuse of power The choice between good and evil is a decision every man must make throughout his life in order to guide his actions and control his future. This element of choice, no matter what the outcome, displays man's power as an individual. Any efforts to control or influence this choice between good and evil will in turn govern man's free will and enslave him. Set in a…

Firstly, as we look for fidelity,in the book Alex has droogs beside him and in the movie too Alex has droogs to accompany him. The names of droogs in the book and in the movie are the same. There is Korova Milk Bar in the movie as in the book. Also there is their special drink MolokoVellocet in the movie and it is also in the book. There are sexual objects and tables in both the movie and the book.…

Adopted from Anthony Burgess’ classical novel by the same name, the setting of the movie is a futuristic England, where crime is rife. Alex, the narrator is the leader of droogs or a teenage gang outfit. He is very vicious and has an insatiable appetite for both violence and sexual crimes. He eventually gets imprisoned for murder and while there, he completely transforms himself to a good inmate in order to reduce his sentence. He volunteers to undergo a treatment…

One gets an initial impression of Alex and his friends from the first page: Alex says, "There was me... and my three droogs". Immediately this suggests that he and his friends are close, like a gang, and this leads on to the idea of conflict. The closeness of Alex and his friends is elaborated upon throughout the chapter. He frequently uses the phrase "The four of us" and, when speaking to Pete, Georgie and Dim, he says, "Oh my brothers".…

Option and free will are needed to keep humankind, both separately and communally; without them, man is no longer human however a "clockwork orange", a mechanical toy, as shown in Anthony Citizen' unique, "A Clockwork Orange". The choice between great and evil is a decision every man must make throughout his life in order to direct his actions and manage his future. Forcing someone to be excellent is not as essential as the act of somebody picking to be excellent.…