Essay on Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange - 1497 Words

Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange Choice and free will are necessary to maintain humanity, both individually and communally; without them, man is no longer human but a â€Å"clockwork orange†, a mechanical toy, as demonstrated in Anthony Burgess’ novel, â€Å"A Clockwork Orange†. 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. Forcing someone to be good is not as important as the act of someone choosing to be good. This element of choice, no matter what the outcome, displays man’s power as an individual. â€Å"A Clockwork Orange† starts with Alex posing the question: â€Å"what’s it going to be then, eh?†. Burgess begins the story by demonstrating that Alex†¦show more content†¦The government controls Alex’s free will by means of the Ludovico Technique, which makes Alex physically ill at the mere consideration of violent thoughts. When Alex is in the â€Å"staja† the Governor states that criminals â€Å"can best be dealt with on a purely curative basis. Kill the criminal reflex†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The Governor does not understand that criminal intent is not an unrestrained reaction, but the result of autonomy. The voice of reason in the prison is the prison Chaplin who questions the ethics of interfering with God’s gift of moral choice, â€Å"goodness comes from within†¦.goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man†. Again through one of his characters, Burgess is stating that inhibiting a pers on’s free will is more evil than a person’s ability to choose evil over good. If one cannot choose, one ceases to be human and is exactly like a machine controlled by the government. After Alex undergoes the Ludovico Technique, he stops asking â€Å"what’s it going to be then, eh?† only to prove that Alex has lost his free will. Alex’s question that was so prominent disappears and the mere thought of violence makes him physically ill. Dr Branom explains the effects of the technique to Alex : â€Å"you are being made sane, you are being made healthy†. The government and the doctors are convinced that they are making Alex â€Å"sane† and â€Å"healthy†. On the contrary, they are controlling his ability to have a choice in his actions. The doctors areShow MoreRelatedAnthony Burgess and A Clockwork Orange987 Words   |  4 Pagesnothing you can do about it. Anthony Burgess created this world through his novel, A Clockwork Orange. Anthony Burgess was born in 1917 and died in 1963. A lot of social changes occurred during this period of time, such as: the roaring twenties, prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II, the fa ll of the Berlin Wall, and many more. Burgess not only lived through those changes, but also helped influences some social changes in literature and music. Anthony Burgess was a jack-of-all-trades throughoutRead MoreA Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess1960 Words   |  8 PagesAnthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange has been placed under much scrutiny by literary critics and readers everywhere. Furthermore, this highly criticized novel contains a myriad of ways to engage with the work, whether it is from the psychological or ethical perspective. Through College Literature Journal’s article â€Å"O My Brothers†, the unnamed author draws interesting connections between the main character’s development and how pseudo-families and pseudo- self plays a part on this said developmentRead MoreA Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess1383 Words   |  6 PagesFree 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 AlexRead MoreA Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess1034 Words   |  5 PagesImagine 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 â€Å"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 literatureRead MoreA Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess1473 Words   |  6 PagesLinking the fundamental conflict between individual identity and societal identity with musical imagery in the story â€Å"A Clockwork Orange† by Anthony Burgess, creates a lens through which one can recognize the tendency that violence can destroy an individual’s identity. The main protagonist and narrator of the story is Alex and although he associates violence with his own individual identity and sense of self, he consistently reveals the impossibility of remaining an individual in the face of group-orientedRead MoreA Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess2327 Words   |  10 Pagesat the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my sword-pen,† Anthony Burgess in his novel ‘A Clockwork Orange’ , which happens to be a scathing critique of totalitarian government, through the character of F. Alexander. Burgess is attempting to criticize the type of governments that try to limit the freedom of an individual through science and technology. To be more specific, the use of ‘LudovicoRead MoreA Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess2443 Words   |  10 PagesIn A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Alex, the protagonist is a fifteen-year-old boy who commits ultra-violent acts out of pure pleasure. The allegory present throughout the novel shows that Alex is ruthless and does not feel pain when experiencing the deaths of others. Throughout the journey of a small portion of Alex’s life, vivid representations of settings are used to portray the dark deeds done by Alex and his friends. Burgess also uses distinct dialect to individualize Alex and his friendsRead MoreA Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess2415 Words   |  10 PagesA Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, a s tory of a young troublemaker who rebels in every way possible against his society’s norms. The main character, Alex progresses throughout the story learning how his actions affect his future. Along the way Alex conforms, or at least pretends to, whenever necessary to survive or to get his way. However, during his incarceration, he underwent a procedure that altered his ability to rebel. This made Alex realize there are other was to adapt and overcome besidesRead MoreA Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess1410 Words   |  6 Pages Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange has long been regarded as one of the most difficult books to read, both due to its heavy use of made-up slang, and the overtly violent nature of the main character, Alex. When Stanley Kubrick’s version was produced in 1971, the movie earned an R or NC-17 rating, due to the sheer amount of violence. The subject matter of the movie was violence at it’s very nature. However, upon closer examination, there are many references to religion, Christianity in particularRead MoreAnalysis Of Anthony Burgess s A Clockwork Orange819 Words   |  4 Pageshumans from machines. Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, believes this trait is a person’s freedom to make conscious decisions. By taking away a person’s ability to choose between doing the right thing or the wrong thing, you also take away what makes them human. A Clockwork Orange creates a world documenting the decay of a person’s will to live and the lo ss of their humanity when their freedom of choice is taken away. Alex, the protagonist of A Clockwork Orange, is a textbook example