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Subverting the conventional and routinely familiar is, then at the centre of A
Clockwork Orange
Compare and contrast ideas of alienation and defamiliarisation in A CLOCKWORK
ORANGE and VERNON GOD LITTLE
To be alienated is to be made to feel as if we are outside, an alien even, something foreign that
intrudes upon something of anothers. As an alien we are defamilarised, we are reminded not just
that there are things that are different, but of the surprisingness of things
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how everyday concepts
we take for granted are often odder when examined under the lens of the dystopic. Through closer
examination and comparison of the texts, Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre, and A Clockwork
Orange, by Anthony Burgess, we come closer to understanding that reality is always shifting, and
subverting the logic. Post-Modernism interprets the layers of reality found within the books, and
questioning which of them is the truest, or if they are all equally true as reflections of a larger ideal.
We, as readers, are routinely defamilarised by the events in the narrative, even as we are pulled
closer to the characters journey; we still remain a separate entity, alien to their experiences. We
become familiarised with the characters through their honest first-person narrations; we hear their
innermost thoughts, observe their thought process and reactions. Yet we maintain transcendent of
their experience. In A Clockwork Orange, we are distanced from the horrific acts of cruelty that Alex
performs by a layer of nadsat, to prevent it permeating our consciousness. We read the violence
retroactively in translation. For example, to " tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim
in his blood. does not sound so bad as to hit an old man in an alley and watch him swim in his own
blood. This is because the need to translate the words in your head, substituting in the translations
afterwards. That way, the violence always seems to be happening in the past, because you have
already begun to process the feeling of the language before you fully understand, because of the
harsh nature of words like tolchock and veck. The vs and ks illustrate violence before the word is
translated. This effect was magnified in the first edition of A Clockwork Orange, because there was
no glossary for the nadsat words. Thus, you were even more defamiliarised, stranded without
speaking the language. Burges hold the view that language is contagious, as seen in the moment
when Alex begins to pick up the nuances of PR Deltoid [cite]. In the dustcover of one publication, we
are told "it will take the reader no more than fifteen pages to master and revel in the expressive
language of Nadsat.". This references Burgess view that we will be at once defamiliarised and
familiarised with the langue: first by its strangeness, and them its subliminal penetration,
uncomfortable with the newness, then brainwashed by the permeating violence. This was provided
in the infamous film adaptation by Stanley Kubrick, which distanced us by singing wide camera
lenses to create a dreamlike effect. A similar type of distancing appears in Vernon God Little when
Vernon does not describe the shooting in graphic terms: unusual given his hyperbolic vernacular.
When he first flashes back to Tuesday, he does not think of the shooting, only his last conversation
with Jesus. It is not until chapter 21 that we see the gritty detail of what happened that fateful day.
That is the only time in the book that the events are talked about in a detailed manner, and not in
vague allusions to the shooting, or what Jesus did. The distancing makes us separate from Vernon,

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as if he is holding back from us; it is a denial of the events, if they are not talked about they did not
happen. It is arguable that we are subverted by the use of the characters multiple identities: we
perhaps see them as our characters passing through adolescence, though this is perpetuates in such
a way as to make us

Good novels are always about change, and growth, however in these texts, the characters do not
always grow, but they do seem to go through multiple identities, in such a casual manner to jar the
reader, and make them intensely aware of the masks we put on in our own lives, which is magnified
within the stories. Alex gives himself new titles, and imagine himself in different places. He takes
titles such as Your Humble Narrator, and Alexander the Large, in attempts to define himself. Todd
F. Davis and Kenneth Womack
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theorise that Alex creates pseudo-selves as a reaction to the
environment he lives in. Alex creates pseudo-families or community groups, as exemplified by his
droogs, and furthered by the example of his salutation O my brothers. This is something he seems
to offer indiscriminately, but is important because it included the readers, as it is occasionally
addressed to them. He attempts to make the reader a part of this pseudo-family, which disturbing,
and well as defamiliarising Communist overtones, which seem out of place in this confused young
boy. In the disturbing scene where he rapes two young girls, he refers to them as his nieces, and
himself as Uncle Alex. However, given that these familial functions are taken from a basis of
normative human interactions, Alex believes the pseudo-self to be true, even though it keeps him in
homeostatic equilibrium. He only escapes when he performs the creative: an imagined scene of a
family. This is what allows his to transform into a moral human being in the final chapter, after
becoming exhausted by his anti-ethics. This both familiarises and defamiliarises us. Whilst we are
familiar at the end with Alexs concept of family and his desire for it, we are defamiliarised by our
experiences within the diegisis- people often carry around baby photos for instance, yet not a some
strange unknown baby. This is perhaps the perfect example of Alex, who carries the unknown within
his heart and desires it, in such a way as to seem alien to us. Alienated and defamiliarised at the
same time: an act that seems specially designed to force us to question the role of family within the
narrative. Alexs denial of this basic societal function causes him to lack interpersonal relationships,
resulting in his inability to empathise. This can be seen by his use like when applied to other
humans emotions. He sees his old droog Pete give his fiance a like loving look, and the word
like is used when attempting to understand others emotions: he had no way of confirming what is
happening for another person. Whilst like is far more common among teenagers now, it was not so
when Burgess was writing, though it was used in part by aspects of Beatnik culture, so may be a
reference to music-influenced gang culture. Thus, arguably, it is a way to defamiliarise us though
speech, and force us to question why it is that Alex, cannot read people. It also makes Alex an alien-
completely unable to understand the strange ways of people whom he cannot fathom.

A Clockwork Orange was published around 11 years after the famous coming-of-age novel, Catcher
on the Rye, and manages to encapsulate a similar feeling, as we know the format of such novels
already. Holton Caulfield, the protagonist of the aforementioned book has a distaste for phonies,
just as Alex and Vernon hate things with a passion. Alex defines himself though speech and dress, in

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a way that many teenagers do. It is comparable to Vernon, who is also 15, and trying out different
genres, or identities. In Vernon God Little, this is illustrated as having different directors in the movie
of Vernons life. It can be seen in his name, Vernon Gregory Little: when he is referred to as that, you
know there is trouble, such as when he is being sentenced- full name warrants full attention.
However, throughout the G changes, taking on different meanings depending on the situation.
Sometimes sarcastic, sometimes serious, he is Genius, Gonzales, Godzilla, until the end, when he
meets inspirational axe-murderer Clarence, and becomes Vernon God Little. The title represents his
final form: when he has been released, he is God, everything at once, playing people and forgiving
them. He adopts these aspects of his personality to suit, choosing the stereotypes that work for you
as Pierre says. The taking on of exaggerated in A Clockwork Orange, in how Alex dresses: height of
fashion, in surreal outfits with phallic jelly moulds, and jackets with exaggerated shoulder pads as
Alex attempts to appear masculine and mature. With the mask of Disraeli, he literally becomes a
new person, hiding under layers of meticulous preparation. Parallels can be drawn to youth culture
of the 50s and 60s when Burgess was writing: he was inspired by teddy-boys in their Edwardian
dress, and clunky boots. Moreover, Alexs obsession with classical music could have two possible
links: The Nazi generals of the Nuremburg trials, or the popularity of Rock n Roll. Nazi generals
often attempted to humanise themselves by stating their love classical music and how this meant
they were civilised, clearly ridiculed by Burgess. Secondly, the film Blackboard Jungle with the title
song Rock Around The Clock caused riots in cinemas across the country, further making the Teddy
Boys identity fuelled by music, which perhaps caused Burgess to make Alexs motivations linked to
music. The whole book is structured like an opera, and Alex uses musical when fighting, saying left
two three, right two three. We are like the lewdies who think Great Music will make Modern
Youth more Civilised. This alienates us, as Alex laughs at our naivety.

A deeper analysis of the book leads to the post-modernist-influenced idea of circulate, with layers of
reality overlapping to form a continuous loop, so that we are familiarised by the sense of Deja-vu,
yet horribly defamiliarised by the sense of being trapped. Whilst this is common within books, and is
often seen as a poetic form of symmetry, in these books, it takes on a disturbing dystopian theme
about the pointless struggle of human existence. The scenario: people never change, will always be
venal creatures only looking out for themselves, and we are all simply marionettes in the hands of
fate, unable to change anything, because even our most radical actions cannot be truly original if we
are not autonomous. Everything is stuck. Unchanging. We see this when Vernon is being driven
home by Pam: the tape playing the Galveston, which acts as a fate song. It jammed in the slot the
first time she played it, and just kept on playing. The whole of this scene is littered with the law of
nature; things simply happen and cannot be changed, and Vernon watches this unfold with a sense
of resignation: Pam will miss this corner anyway- its fucken traditional, look, there she goes. The
resignation with which he observes her making the habitual mistake shows how everything in his life
simply goes round and round. Furthermore, Galveston is the he chooses to die to, providing closure
to the narrative. Yet the fact he is saved from the death sentence, conjunction with the fact the tape
is constantly repeating itself presents the idea of being stuck. This becomes especially poignant
when you consider that the novel opens with talk about the axe-murder Clarence, whom Vernon
meets on death row, and advises him on life and death, and only appears in the first and final acts.
This furthers the circularity, making us feel uneasy with the ending. We are familiar with the sense of
uncaringness within the book, we often experience it in our lives, as if we are simply going the
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motions. Yet defamiliarisation happens when the concept that our entire lives are repeating
narratives. This is repeated A Clockwork Orange, when every act begins with whats it gonna be
then, eh? The last chapter spookily mimics the first, with only minor details changing. Same setting,
same protagonist, but different droogs, different clothes. Is this then a metaphor for our lives, and
how we are simply repeating ourselves, but superficial changes makes us not question anything?
Alex states that he will warn his son, and laments how he will not really be able to stop him. And nor
would be able to stop his own son. The cycle of violence then seems never ending, merely yet
another routinely familiar. A Clockwork Orange is filled with self-referential allusions, like F.
Alexanders book also being called A Clockwork Orange, and the repetition on round round round
three times at the end being the same as the number of acts in the book, the whole thing beginning
to resemble a mirror being held up to another mirror, and we can only watch the mirrors expand
onwards into infinity, before we losewhere they all began in the first place.
We are familiar with the concept of religion in our own worlds, yet when decontextualized, we
become more defamiliarised by the more seemingly mundane aspects of religion, and this furthers
our interpretation of our protagonists, but also in other characters. Vernon is a Christ-like figure: he
is isolated and attracts outsiders, as the original Jesus did. It is as if he is needed to die for us on the
cross for our modern sins. Vernons death has more of a ring of sacrifice to it, given that he is
executed on the Ides of March. Whilst this is a reference to the death of Ceaser, it has a deeper
meaning when you consider that the Ides of the month were scared to Jupiter, and a sheep was
ritually sacrificed to him at that time. Vernon is this sheep, who dies to appease the gods. Both of
their final chapters can be seen as heavenly, as if they have already died. Their endings are so happy
and inconsistent with the diegisis that this seems to be a logical conclusion.
One can therefore conclude that not only are we aliens in the story, but our protagonists are too.
Once you peel back the layers or the story, you find not only fruit and sweetness, but pith and
seeds, from which can grow more stories. Being constantly defamilarised and upturned at every
moment, with the nature of reality itself being questioned, along with big topics such as religion and
youth culture.










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Bilbliography:
[1] T.F.Davis, K.Womack . (2002). "O My Brothers": Reading the Anti-Ethics of the
Pseudo-Family in Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange". College Literature. 29 (2),
19-35.
[2] Harcourt Publishers. (2013). Interview with DBC Pierre.
[3] Peters, M. (2011). A Clockwork Orange and Defamilarisation. The English Review. 2-5
[4] Gale Group (2002). Vernon God Little Premium Study Guide. Farmington Hills: The Gale Group. 7-
122
[5] Mohapatra, H.S.. (2011). The Real within the Hyper-real: Identity and Social Location in Vernon
God Little. Ravenshaw Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies. 1 (3), 67-7

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