Clockwork Orange
When Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange, John Anthony Burgess Wilson created his own world set in London during a future time when gangs and violence are rampant on the streets, "which is his own particular vision of horrors yet to come." (Olsen 114). Burgess created in his book a setting of a "dystopian novel" as opposed to a "utopian" novel. Concepts of Utopian society were based on the ideas of Sir Thomas More's visions of an ideal society in his book Utopia. After World War II, the dystopian novel had become more commonplace and was a literary staple of the times. This particular brand of literature stressed the overly pessimistic view of human nature and featured, as was presented in A Clockwork Orange, violence as well as the dark areas of human behavior and society. This novel of a young fifteen-year-old boy known only by the name of Alex, is not an exception. Alex, the antihero, and his three "droogs" are a gang of youngsters who goes around in the dangerous streets of London, fighting, raping, pillaging, and all the basic doings generally associated with anarchy. This young hoodlum is eventually betrayed to the police by his own gang and sentenced to fourteen years in prison--a prison which attempts to cure hi
The blood which the main character in this book enjoys seeing so much is not as essential as the rape and the fighting. Yet it is necessary in that it provides readers with the feeling of Alex's grotesque and evil nature, blood usually being a symbol of evil, although in some Judeo-Christian terms it could also depict salvation and hope. It is shown in its negative sense when the gang robs a local store, "...and then a fair tap with a crowbar they had for opening cases, and that brought the red out like an old friend," (Burgess 10). Another time when he fought a rival gang, "it was real satisfaction... to carve left cheeky and right cheeky, so that like two curtains of blood seemed to pour out at the same time.. down this blood poured in like red curtains," (Burgess 17). Anthony Burgess is a truly talented writer, and as an author and linguist, one must give him his due respect. The novels, the stories, and the mountains of journalism which he wrote are all evidence to such talent. He combined the elements of music, violence, and most importantly language, in this one fiction of a turbulent and violent world to give his audience the depth and the feelings which he had envisioned in this book of a world where to many people, choice and free will are second to the well being of all- a very fascist, Nazi-like idea to say the least. m of his love for violence and evil using what was dubbed the "Ludovico Technique" yet at the same time strips him of his own humanity by not allowing him the freedom to choose right or wrong. He is tested and released out on his own where he encounters many of his earlier victims. After recuperating from an attempted suicide brought on by the pain of the Ludovico Technique, Alex happened to come upon Pete, an old droog of his in the gang. Both Alex and Pete were by then eighteen, but Pete had matured. He had a wife, a job, spoke standard English, and owned a home; whereas Alex was still living with his parents and spoke his own slang. It was after this experience that the young droog had grew up, and a rite of passage took place. At the end, the reader leaves Alex as he is pondering a job and realizing that eighteen was not at all very young to him. He contemplates becoming a family man, having a son to whom he could teach the things he knew. During the course of this story, the readers develop within themselves a sense of darkness and fear, and at the same time a feeling of the surroundings and the tone of this book. Another essential part of the violence in this book was the constant fighting. Alex got into many fights, with his enemies as well as his own droogs. This element gives the reader a sense of the perpetual turbulence which enveloped the city of London and any place around young Alex as well as within this disturbed young man: There were vecks and ptitsas both young and starry, lying on the ground screaming for mercy, and I was smecking all over my rot and grinding my boot in their litsos. And there were devotchkas ripped and creeching against walls and I plunging like a shlaga into them...(Burgess 33). Unlike the violence and the music which many other authors use to create a setting, language was one of the most unique and original elements which Anthony Burgess introduced into this dystopian novel. His fascination with language and his mastery of his words is clearly shown here
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Approximate Word count = 2263
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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