Alexis Lowe

UWRT 1102-007
11/24/16
A Clockwork Orange
When I was first assigned to read this book and was told it may be a little hard to read, I
didnt want to read it. I didnt see the purpose of trying to read a book if I wouldnt be able to
understand it. But, I was wrong. This is one of the best books Ive ever read.
A Clockwork Orange is centered around a dystopian, describing a forthcoming future in a
heavily supervised country. He achieved this task by pushing his teenaged character, Alex,
through situations that challenge the moral values of himself and his droogs. In the novel, Alex
himself, must choose good over evil in order to gain moral values which will allow him to
mature into a man.
In the book, Burgess uses a slang term known as Nadsat as the way teenagers would
communicate. Nadsat is a combination of Russian and Polish and is a part of Alexs identity.
Creating the books own language made this book very unique. Also some sentence structure are
very strange and in the same time beautiful. Language played a huge role in the book and may be
hard to understand at the beginning but eventually becomes easier. Phrases such as
"ultraviolence" and "the old in and out". Language is the key element to making a book a good
read and I believe that the author did a great job with it.
Government roles played a huge role in this book, also. Burgess paints a future outlook of
a land that is still committed to democracy, but that has already adapted radical methods for
dealing with troubled youth such as Alex. Alex enjoys being the bad guy and considers it part of
his identity. On the other hand, Alex himself believes that the government doesn't want all this
theft, rape and murder in its streets.

The book is absolutely a good read and I would recommend it to others!