A Clockwork Orange Essay, Research Paper

Science Fiction

A Modern Clockwork

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, published in 1962, technically falls under the period deemed as ?Modernism?, yet it includes all of the features that were characteristic of that literary era. Burgess?s novel is a futuristic look at a Totalitarian government. The main character, Alex, or the anti-hero, is an ?ultra-violent? thief who has no qualms about using force to get the ?in-out-in-out?. The beginning of the story takes us through a night in the life of Alex and his Droogs, and the details of the adventures that occupy their time. At fifteen years old Alex is set up by his Droogs (Pete, Dim, and Georgie) and was sent to prison and convicted of murder. At the State Penitentiary he became 6655321 and spent two years out of a fourteen year sentence there. Alex is chosen by the government to undergo an experimental therapy called the ?Ludvico?s Technique?, and to be administered by Dr. Brodsky. This technique was to cure him of doing bad things. Alex is given injections and made to watch films of rape and violence, and the combination of the images and the drugs cause him to associate feelings of panic and nausea with violence. He is released after a two weeks of treatment. Shortly after being released and having a few encounters with past victims he finds himself in the home of a radical writer. This writer, F. Alexander, also a victim of Alex?s, but did not recognize him, was strongly opposed to the new treatment that the government had subjected him to, and believed that this method robs the recipient of freedom of choice and moral decision. Therefore depriving him of being human at all, and becoming a clockwork orange. Alex eventually attempts suicide and the State is forced to admit the therapy was a mistake and ?cures? him again. The last chapter in the novel, which was omitted from the American version and Stanley Kubrick?s film, shows Alex?s realization that he is growing up and out of his ultra-violent ways on his own. He realizes that he would like to have a wife and a son of his own. A Clockwork Orange abandons normal language, which Modernist believe couldn?t always convey meaning anyway, and is written in ?Nadsat?. Nadsat is the teenager slang that was spoken at the time. Burgess uses approximately two hundred and fifty nadsat words to convey his story. This gives the reader a sense of intimacy with Alex and his Droogs, due to the fact that the adults in the novel can?t understand what they are saying. There is also a disturbance in the linear flow of narrative aside from this private language. Alex, ?Our Humble Narrator?, tells his stories in a remembering type sequence, but often interjects questions and thoughts directly at the reader. Besides the strange language that is found on the pages of this novel