Essay Clockwork Orange

The main goal of this essay is to present a book written by Anthony Burgess
called A Clockwork Orange. The book is a typical dystopian novel with satirical
black humour and set-in near future society in which the youth commit actions
of violence against older people and women.

The main plot focuses on a young man called Alex Delarge. In his free time,
which he has a lot of because he's continually avoiding school, he visits milk
bar Korova with his friends or commits acts of violence in the streets,
especially at night. One night they break into the house of writer F. Alexander
and his wife. The woman does not want to let them in at first, but Alex is very
cheeky and convinces her to let them through. What happens next is very
revolting, because the group ties up the man to the chair and they make him
watch Alex raping the woman in a humiliating manner. After a successful night
the boys decided to go the milk bar for a glass of fresh milk plus. Suddenly a
woman starts singing and it catches Alexes attention. He appreciates the
music, until Dim, one of his friends starts making fun of it. Alex gets mad, so he
hits his friend and tells him that he does not know how to behave properly.
The group choose to break into another house. In the beginning everything
looks normal and Alex once again finds a way into the house. But things are
starting to get out of control, when Alex murders a woman with statue and
police arrives. When he gets outside Dim hits him in the face with a chain and
he stays lying on the street until police finds him. He is convicted to 14 years in
prison for a murder. Alex becomes friend with the chaplain in prison. Although
he behaves nicely at first, he gets into a fight, where he kills prisoners. As a
punishment, he becomes a guinea pig in the experiment of the state
regeneration program Ludovico. They must cure him of violent tendencies and
release him in two weeks. He is forced to constantly watch violent films, which
are accompanied by classical music. He used to love both activities. To do this,
he receives drugs intravenously, so he feels sick when he looks at violence.
When he is released, he encounters his past victims who beat him. He gets to
F. Alexander's house, who does not recognize him at first and provides him
with support. Eventually, however, he recognizes him because of his voice,
imprisons him in the apartment and plays classical music to the maximum. Alex
can't stand it and jumps out the window. He didn't die, but he is seriously
injured. The state starts to take care of him, everyone knows him. They heal
him from Ludovica's method and return him to society. Alex moves back in
with his parents, finds a new group, but realizes that he wants to live a quiet
family life now.

I genuinely liked the book, but I must admit that occasionally it was really
disturbing. There are many themes that we can find, like conflict between
good and evil, commitment and neutrality, man and machine, man and
government or youth and maturity. This means that work has a lot of dualities.
Main motif of the novel is probably Nadsat, which is the language that main
character and his friends used. Nadsat is not in fact a common language that is
widely used by other people except Alex and his group, but it is an argot, which
consists of Russian and Cockney English. In my opinion, it is fascinating that
author created a unique language that fits perfectly into the ambience of the
book. Other motives that are worth mentioning are Classical Music and Jesus
Christ. In terms of symbols the most typical is milk, but not ordinary one. It is
milk to which alcohol or hallucinogens are added, therefore, it is called Milk
Plus. Other noteworthy symbols are Image of Darkness, Image of Lightness or
Night and Moon. The book is based on a dreadful event that happened to
Burgess during the Second World War. His wife had been attacked and
assaulted by four American deserters.
I would recommend this book to everyone, who loves dystopian novels or
appreciate bad characters and anti-heroes, which usually have interesting
stories. In some parts it can be difficult to carry on reading, but I think it is
worth finishing it. Even though the book is very controversial and disturbing,
the main reason that kept me interested was main the character's moral
development.