Clockwork Orange Essay, Research Paper

This novel is short?only being about 180 pages?but looks may deceive you, or

in other words don?t judge a book buy its cover or its thickness. A Clockwork

Orange is actually 360 pages because you have to read between the lines. You may

think that the story?s theme is that the future will be filled with horrible

decadent violence (that is what I first thought), but if you read between the

lines you will understand that this book is written for one main purpose, a

purpose other than entertainment. A Clockwork Orange was written in 1962, story

about the future which was meant to be around 1995 to 2000 (a car used in the

story called a 95′ Durango). A boy about seventeen, Alex the narrator and main

character living in London, rampages about with his ?droogs? (friends)

raping, stealing, beating and even killing people. Alex one day is caught for

murder and jailed but two years later he is luckily freed twelve years before

his sentence ends to take advantage of a new treatment for violent people like

him that he volunteered for. He goes through the therapy and succeeds and

returns back to civilization. He now becomes sick when he is about to commit a

violent or sexual, but also when the Ninth Symphony by Beethoven plays (a minor

defect from the treatment). Alex is driven to attempt suicide from this defect

because he is locked within a chamber playing this song and does not accomplish

his task. He is hospitalized and returns to his ?ultra-violent? self while

the inhumane treatment does not work because it does not even give people a

choice about being violent. While Alex helps to present the theme, two different

outcomes are formed. First, Alex goes through a great change from being

?ultra- violent? to becoming Lamb-chop and then back to being

?ultra-violent?. Second, the theme defines the major conflict of the story.

Although the conflict does not have to do with Alex directly, he helps to

illustrate it. The conflict is not solved in the book and will probably never be

solved, but it does bring up for debate what Anthony Burgess thinks about right

or wrong, regarding the controversial situation of a cycle of violence.

?Violence makes Violence,? is what was once said to Alex by P. R. Deltoid,

his teacher from school before he went to prison. This book brings up . What do

we do to someone who has committed a violent crime? Do we punish them with more

violence, for instance death, or do we help them? This is the problem that has

arisen in this story and also in our daily lives with the death penalty. Anthony

Burgess thinks that the solution to violence should not be violence, but he does

not give any alternatives. In A Clockwork Orange a new treatment for

disturbingly violent criminals is developed by scientists working for the

English government and the government tests it on some convicted violent

prisoners. The treatment guaranteed that the patient would turn good and be let

out into the free world again. Alex was one of the lucky (because of reduced

sentence) people chosen. The treatment includes long days of watching violent

movie clips while a patient is hooked up to a lot of hardware. The treatment

works because now when a ex-criminal sees or are about to commit cruel violent

or criminal or sexual acts you become sick and cannot perform the task. This

procedure was thought of to end violence without causing violence, because every

action causes a reaction. For example, when Alex was free to return to his life,

his ?droogs? betray him and beat him up severely in payback for his cruel

ruling as leader of the team of friends. This might cause Alex to come back and

hurt them again, which he considers. This causes a chain of violence that may

take years to end. When Alex is about to go to Dr. Brodsky (the man who will

cure him), the governor speaks to Alex. He told him about how these new radical

ideas and methods of treatment have been formed (from ?ultra-violent? to a

lamb), and he does not approve of them. ?If someone hits you, you hit back, do

you not,? the governor said to Alex. The governor means that for each action

there will be a solution of even more violence. The preceding brings up the

question of turning the bad into the good or the ?state should hit back?

also like the convict. One thing that is important here is that the state does

not care about turning the bad into good, but on cutting down on crime and the

only way to do that is cut down on the number of criminals. But by doing that

with ?just? ways. In the end this resolution is just another violent

punishment because it does not give people freedom and it can then lead to

death. In Alex?s case he tried to commit suicide. As you see this problem of

settling what to do to criminals is already very complicated to solve and may

never be solved, but as it says in the Old Testament, murder will result with

murder (of the criminal) or in other words violence makes violence. This problem

is not for me to solve, but I think that an innocent, good and hardworking

person such as for example Alex?s parents should have the right to live in

peace. Therefore, one goal to gain more peace is to try to lessen crime, and to

do that, punishments have to be given. If a hoodlum were unpunished he would

think he could freely commit horrible crimes again. This means that the convict

has to be stopped and taught a lesson before innocent and peaceful people get

hurt. Consequently, protecting good people is more important than not punishing

a criminal because the good people might get hurt and not the criminal. Now only

the judge has to choose who is good and bad. The book and the movie complement

each other. First, the book is less discrete with the theme and the theme in the

movie is very direct. Second, after reading the book any questions you might

have are solved in the movie because the movie is much more clear and it is also

made for an audience with less intelligence, who come to see violence. Finally,

both the movie and the book are alike except that there is more description in

the book and more in-between time between all the important events in the book.

Otherwise, if you read the book first and see the movie second, you will

understand the question brought up by the theme. I liked the fact that there

were more that 300 words not in English, which were invented by the author and

made from Russian, therefore I had to look up a lot of words in the index, but

it was entertaining reading like that. The thing I liked most about the book is

the controversial question brought up and trying to solve it myself. I cannot

think of any dislikes about the book, but I unlike Anthony Burgess, I think that

there should be a solution to. You may ask what was between the lines and now

you get your answer: Anthony Burgess explains how violence is not a solution to

violence (violence makes violence), and that is the theme of A Clockwork Orange.