A Clockwork Orange Essay

The novel A Clockwork Orange written by Anthony Burgess and published in 1962 is a brilliant commentary on humanity and morality in our evermore controlling world. Burgess believes that the freedom to make moral choices is what seperates human beings from plant life and lower animals. He illustrates his beliefs on morality with his main character Alex. Alex is given freedom to make his own choices, and is able to see good and bad as both equally valid decisions. Once the state removes Alex’s right to make these moral choices he becomes nothing more then just a thing. This novel uses elements such as the Christian idea of morality to further this point. Also Burgess uses his own creation, the language of Nadsat to further this point that our reality is subjective to our moral stances in this world. The language Brugess developed is the fashionable dialect amongst the teens of A Clockwork Orange. Deemed Nadsat by Burgess to reflect the Russian roots of its dialect, â€Å"Indeed, the word ‘nadsat’ actually comes from the Russian suffix for ‘teen’. † (What Effects Does the Language in A Clockwork Orange Have on the Reader). Burgess developed the language of Nadsat after learning Russian for a trip he had been planning with his wife. This article explains the language as us elements of Anglo-American, but many of the words having Slavic roots. †The language,nadsat, is explained by Blake Morrison in his introduction to the book as, ‘essentially Anglo-American †¦ but many of the words are Slavic in origin,’. † (What Effects Does the Language in A Clockwork Orange Have on the Reader). This is a testament to Burgess’ ability to manipulate English and other origins of language to paint a picture and create an atmosphere with words. Another example of Burgess utilization of vocabulary is in main character Alex’s name, that stems from a-lex which has means without law, a fair testament to his personality, and behavior, â€Å"Another interesting feature of the book, related to the language, is the meaning of Alex’s name, which comes from a-lex, which means without, or outside the law. † (What Effects Does the Language in A Clockwork Orange Have on the Reader). The language was developed to have certain effects on the reader, and put emphasis on the first person perspective in which this novel was written. One of the effects the use of Nadsat has on the reader is creating a distancing feeling from reader to Alex and his story. This makes the reader feel like more of an outside observer to the happenings of this novel. However, dialect used like â€Å"O my brothers† creates a conflict effect to the effects of Nadsat, as it is inclusive as opposed to distancing. This gives the novel a feel that Alex is telling his story to you, a close friend, in a later more stable time in Alex’s life. This article establishes recognition of this incongruous literary device, â€Å"the way in which Alex addresses us, quite often with the words ‘O my brothers. ‘ makes the story being told more personal, as it seems to be just us that Alex is talking to, and we are in receipt of an amazing story which is only being told to a chosen few. This use of language is incongruous to the use of the nadsat†¦ † (What Effects Does the Language in A Clockwork Orange Have on the Reader). The trend of distancing through Nadsat is continued in the effect it has on dulling the violence and graphic content found throughout A Clockwork Orange. Most of the context in which Nadsat is used contains discussions of ultra violent behaviors. This allows the reader to judge and observe Alex with only a vague understanding of the extent of his violent and sinister activities. This article illustrates this point with a quote from Burgess, the violence in the book is partially veiled, making it seem less shocking. As Burgess himself explained;’to tolchock a chelloveck in the kishkas does not sound as bad as booting a man in the guts. ‘† (What Effects Does the Language in A Clockwork Orange Have on the Reader). Another effect Nadsat has on the reader is that it helps differentiate the teenagers from mature adults, or furthermore, those who carry a similar ideology, or hold a similar understanding to main character, Alex, and those who do not. As Illustrated in this article, â€Å"In one way, however, Burgess’ use of the nadsat provides a useful reference point for us in figuring out who among the characters is a ‘teen’ and who is not. † (What Effects Does the Language in A Clockwork Orange Have on the Reader). This point is also made by Alex in part three,†Oh, that,† I said, â€Å"is what we call nadsat talk. All the teens use that, sir. (A Clockwork Orange, 167). This article is an introduction to Brugess’ creation, Nadsat. It clarifies the roots and origins of the dialect found in a Clockwork Orange. Explaining where Anthony Burgess found the inspiration to develop the dialect to represent the youth of his novel. Also it helps the reader understand the effects Burgess is trying to have on your perception of the story with the introduction of Nadsat. These understandings all furthers your understanding and immersion into the story and ideals behind the story A Clockwork Orange, which I think is one of the many reasons this great story carries such a cult following. A clockwork orange Essay By the end of the novel Alex has changed as if by clockwork, because he cannot stop himself growing up into an adult and he knows that he will become one of the bullied people as the new youth are born, and if he has kids that they will go through the same process as he did, just like clockwork and he cannot stop it from happening: † and nor would I be able to stop him. And nor would he be able to stop his own son, brothers. And so it would itty on to like the end of the world†. After chapter two, he said â€Å"I am a clockwork orange†, this is because after Lodovico’s technique, he had no free will because as he could not even protect himself from fights because whatever the doctors said he would do, in this sense he has become a machine, or a clockwork toy, like children’s toys, as this novel has many references to children’s things, which have been warped, like the milk with drugs in it, and now Alex being a clockwork toy. These attempts to change him failed because he had become a mechanism of the doctors, and change was forced upon him, but the final chapter of the book shows that people change and mature naturally from within, change cannot be forced upon them. The novel â€Å"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde† has a completely different structure to that of â€Å"A Clockwork orange†. In Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde there is the use of multiple narrators, instead of just the one. This tells us, that there was no voice for the people not in the higher class of society with the upper class only important, because all the narrators are all high-class people with well paid jobs, as seen by: â€Å"Mr Utterson the lawyer† this shows that Victorians had a very narrow view of society. This relates to Robert Louis Stevenson’s background because he was brought up in the upper middle classes of Edinburgh, he was raised as a Calvinist, in which the elect were the ones blessed by God, who turn out rich and the reprobates had a bad life, however Stevenson rebels against this and gives up law to become a writer, and he marries an already divorced woman with three children, he also by the final years of his life travels the world, this is why we only hear from Jekyll/Hyde in the last chapter, because Hyde represents rebellion , as Roberts life was very restricted, like Jekyll before he rebelled, but after he rebelled he was free like Hyde. Stevenson breaks the book apart in this way because at the time he wrote the book, society was disintegrating, as immigrants were coming to London bringing disease, religion was breaking apart because of science, crime was rising, and there was a huge division of classes, and Hyde in the novel is represented as foreign, as he is described as â€Å"some damned juggernaut†, which is a Indian religious statue which is carried through the streets not stopping even if people are crushed underneath it, portraying him a some sort of disease. The language of Jekyll represents that of the other narrators in the novel, because all of them are upper class men so they are expected to talk in a certain manner, as seen: â€Å"But I have been pedantically exact, as you call it†, this is quite a high class way of speech, and Jekyll is narrowed by this way of speech because he is high class. However in the final chapter, the language starts to change because he has to make a final decision about who to stay as, Jekyll, or Hyde, as he start to become scared, as when Jekyll starts to describe his transformation into Hyde the language becomes more fluent, fun, youthful language: â€Å"Edward Hyde would pass away like a stain of breath upon a mirror† However Jekyll’s speech was respectable, but with boundaries, and was very sharp and did not flow like Hyde’s. Jekyll enjoys evil in the form of Hyde, because in a way it gives Jekyll an opportunity to experience free life without having to be a lower class. He enjoys the life of Hyde more because it has no boundaries, and he feels free with it. In Jekyll’s normal life he is bounded by upper class rules so he has no passion, which he really wants. This resembles † A Clockwork Orange†, as the final chapter of A clockwork Orange, ends unhappily, because Alex has lost all his passion, and beauty, because of his changes in music: â€Å"I was slooshying more like malenky romantic songs† when he was small he was full of life when hearing Beethoven, and he has lost that as he has become older, his fun youth days have gone. This is like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde because with Jekyll his class binds him, so he cannot be free and have wild fun, but when he is Hyde he is free and youthful: â€Å"I was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity†, he is also † younger, lighter, happier†, and he gets a † heady recklessness† when Hyde. Stevenson is like Hyde in the sense that, Hyde is a figure of rebellion again the upper class boundaries, and Stevenson did exactly the same as he rebelled against Calvinist beliefs. He could also be seen like Jekyll, bounded because of his class, but Stevenson bounded by his illness, and all the time he wanted to break free, and finally he did, to become an individual, not held back by beliefs, or morals. This novel says that morals and classes cannot bind human nature, people have to become what they become, and there is no stopping that, because as people grow they will change, and rebel against beliefs, which they think, are wrong. A Clockwork Orange Essay Anthony Burgess uses a number of devices to evoke both sympathy and empathy from the reader, most notably in the direction of the novella’s protagonist. Alex’s first person narrative thrusts the reader into the dystopian world Burgess creates and the twisted actions he undertakes as a part of his drug-fuelled ‘ultra-violence’. Despite this, the reader is also forced into grasping the understanding of the morally disturbed character and Burgess cleverly manipulates Alex as a representation of the young and troubled generation. The plot itself equally contributes to the readers feeling towards Alex as he additionally becomes a government subject; torturing his mind to remove any capacity of evil and the subsequent downward spiral his life takes. But Burgess continually begs the question: is it possible to feel sympathy for a character capable of the most disgraceful crimes? Structurally, Burgess uses the formation of the novella itself and the division of the parts as a method of finding empathy for Alex. Each part begins with the same question to the reader: â€Å"What’s it going to be then, eh? † which at the start appears innocuous as they decide on their night’s dwellings. But this is repeated in the beginning of the second part as Alex is imprisoned; the same question now has an alternative meaning, his future looks bleak and he is sentenced to a stint in prison because of the murder he commits. Instead of an innocuous question, it now is a meaningful question in the readers head evoking empathy by the uncertainty of his punishment and the impending circumstances of the ‘staja’. Yet the final repetition of the question in the concluding part of the novella enforces the most empathy. Firstly the cyclical nature of the question as it refers right back to the beginning suggests to the reader that perhaps Alex is now actually faced with a choice to either improve his life or to continue to neglect his obvious intelligence. What evokes perhaps the most empathy is that because of his torturing under the Ludivico Technique, he no longer has the capacity to commit evil and free will is ripped away from him. The reader is forced into a moral dilemma through Burgess’s manipulation of the structure which confirms the fear that he has become ‘A Clockwork Orange’. One of the most effective methods Burgess uses is the first person narrative of Alex. First person becomes a tool in the novella which allows Alex to convey his deepest thoughts to the reader, and the perspective of events. Because Burgess uses first person narrative, the reader is forced into the mind of Alex, giving an excellent insight into the absence of morality in the main character. Alex says: â€Å"where was I to go, who had no home and not much cutter? † despite being a criminal, the first person narrative immediately changes the viewpoint for the reader who now sympathises with Alex who is seemingly helpless and abandoned. Burgess successfully uses this narrative to ensure that the reader’s reaction is maximised; the closer to the action the reader is, the more likely they are to feel emotion for the character involved. In the context of the novella, this is following from his family’s rejection of him who have replaced him with ‘Joe’; adding to the sympathy from the reader because family is supposedly the main body of support in life and when your family fails you, that renders you helpless. Alex’s narrative certainly includes numerous examples of emotive language â€Å"I’ve suffered and I’ve suffered and everybody wants me to go on suffering† here the repetition of the word â€Å"suffering† cements the idea to the reader that this is a character who has faced adversity and has appears to have the world against him. The first person narrative immediately sides the reader with Alex, defending his actions when everybody else turns on him. The word â€Å"suffering† suggests the pain Alex has been through, which Burgess conveys to the reader in order to connect with the character in spite of his sickening acts. The device of first person narrative develops into a powerful method of evoking empathy of the reader; shared emotions of the troubled character allow the reader to enter Alex’s mind and the thought process behind the violence thus excusing him from even the most unacceptable atrocities. How Alex addresses the reader is also a method which Burgess uses as a connecting link. Whilst in first person narrative, he addresses the reader continually: â€Å"O, my brothers†. Initially this appears to be neither transcending nor condescending which gives the reader a certain relation to Alex, as if he was a regular person somebody would meet. But also the connotations of the word â€Å"brother† is significant as it develops a fraternal relationship between the reader and Alex; a family, brotherly bond where the trouble Alex finds himself in, the reader understands and can even begin defending him. But as the plot progresses Alex also appeals to the reader directly labelling himself: â€Å"Your Humble Narrator†. The language is suggestive of Alex lowering of himself, in service to the reader. To the reader, this changes the relationship previously outlined by the character who now considers himself beneath his superiors and perhaps this is a result of the continual demise of his life and his treatment, the lack of confidence and recognition of his place on the social hierarchy. The character of Alex himself can certainly be seen as a device constructed by Burgess which attracts sympathy. Notably, his love of classical music is considered an acquired taste and is associated with the higher class things in life as a fine art. But his passion for it is evident: â€Å"Then, brothers, it came. Oh, bliss, bliss and heaven† and his reaction upon hearing his favourite sound is interesting as he closes himself from the rest of the world in his corner of his bedroom. In relation to a 1960’s audience when classical music was perhaps more common in society, Alex’s preference would have certainly be shared with many people of the era. The effect this has is that both the reader and the main character have a shared taste, a common ground, linking them. Here, sympathy is created by Burgess as the readers feel closer to Alex through his love of classical music, giving him a more human side despite his violent tendencies. In conclusion, the novella on the whole culminates to evoke sympathy for the main character. Burgess main device of achieving so is certainly the first person narrative in which the audience is given the clearest insight into the protagonist’s actions and thoughts; making a strong bond from the beginning. Rather than ‘not encouraging to find much sympathy’ indeed it is actually hard to not find sympathy in the character of Alex. Ultimately the audience’s moral dilemma of feeling sympathy for a character capable of the most sinister acts is overridden by the embedded human nature of nurturing and rehabilitation; even the most evil of criminals can be put on the right path and change their ways. A clockwork orange Essay Q1. What do we learn about the character of Alex in â€Å"A clockwork orange† form the first four chapters? In â€Å"A clockwork orange† Alex is the main character, there are also 3 other important characters too they are Dim, Pete and Georgie, they are all in the same gang. Alex is the leader of this gang we know this because he calls Dim, Pete and Georgie â€Å"his droogs†. Alex is fifteen years old and he is a teenager who enjoys drinking and taking drugs, like all teenagers he is rebellious. He has a lot of power over people and can be quite manipulating at times as in chapter one he buys some drinks for some ‘old baboochkas’ so he has an alibi. We find out that Alex is fascinated and enjoys violence and sex. He chooses to do the bad things he does because he likes to do them ‘But what I do I do because I like to do’. We learn that Alex is well educated and can speak politely to people who are able to find out what he does and make him stop doing what he does, like P. R. Deltoid, his post-corrective adviser; he talks to him very politely however he does go over the top on the politeness and sounds patronising for example ‘to what do I owe the extreme pleasure? Is anything wrong, sir? ‘ we learn that he doesn’t care for anyone than himself, otherwise I don’t think he would of caused pain to innocent people. He doesn’t like to be dirty, and when Dim was all dirty and looked a mess Alex and the other two characters tidied him up. I don’t think he feels guilty after all the crimes that he commits however I do feel that he sometimes holds back and he only does the bad things he does when he has taken drugs. As well as enjoying violence and sex he enjoys classical music especially Beethoven’s ninth symphony, as when he rapes a woman in her home he puts classical music on and the way he describes the music ‘slooshying the sluice of lovely sounds’. In chapter three he associates violence with the music and climax’s with the music whilst thinking about violence. Alex is very much of an individual. Q2. What effects does the style of the novel create? The way ‘A clockwork orange’ is written is using a mixture of slang, old English, cockney rhyming slang, and foreign words, this is because it is Alex’s own special gang language. Every gang at the time had their own gang language, which could be very different or very alike to Alex’s, to this day people around the country have their own gang language. The way Anthony Burgess has written the novel has made the reader feel very involved in the violence; I sometimes feel that I have actually witnessed Alex doing the dreadful things he does. The writer has achieved this by preaching to the reader ‘O my brothers’. The word brother makes you feel part of his gang, when he is speaking to his other gang members or describing something he is doing or done, he will almost every time say ‘my brother’. The way Alex describes things he likes doing he does in so much detail and it really makes the reader feel the same way Alex does about what he likes. As it is from a males view point women aren’t seen as good as men and they are only there for sex. Q3. What do we learn of the society of the novel? In this novel we learn that the society or the area Alex lives is a very rundown area, and it is a working class area. We know there is a lot of trouble in the area as when P. R. Deltoid comes to see Alex, Alex describes him as ‘an overworked veck with hundreds on his book’ this meaning that P. R. Deltoid had lots of trouble makers to see that morning and that he had been in his job for a long time. Also people wont go out at night because of all the crime. His dad says ‘but we don’t go out much now. We daren’t go out much, the streets being what they are. Young hooligans and so on’. This also suggests that there is a big lack of police in the area to control the crime, the authority is undermined by the younger generation. There is also a lot of vandalism in the area as the ‘old municipal painting’ in his flatblock had been graffiti on by people drawing rude things on it. The painting was to show the society of the area and it describes the painting as ‘vecks and ptitsas very well developed, stern in the dignity of labour, at workbench and machine with not one stitch of platties on their well-developed plots. ‘ This is saying that the people in the society are working class however they are proud of what they do. I feel that there isn’t a lot of trust in the area as well and that everyone is frightened of each other because in chapter two the woman at the door had the chain on the door so it is obvious that she is aware of all the crime in the area and is also scared. Although in chapter four the two young girls did not know about the danger of being around Alex maybe this is because they were so vulnerable or they were not aware of the danger in the area. A Clockwork Orange Essay I chose for my text transformation to use the base text ‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess. This novel interested me because of its individual language of ‘Nadsat’, a form of slang created by Burgess for gangs of violent English teenagers. The slang serves a serious purpose, which is too keep the violence of the protagonist from becoming unbearable to its reader, keeping the language partly veiled, for example making ‘gratizny bratchny’ sound more pleasant than its meaning ‘dirty bastard’. It is important to realise that its audience of the 60’s have not yet become subject to such violence and despair explored in the novel. So what have I done? I have taken four characters from the novel (Alex’s parents, Alex and the schoolmaster) and placed them into ‘The Jerry Springer Show’, creating a parody of the show. I have given Alex’s parents the names of Janet and Derek and looked at their perspective of Alex’s violent activities. As I would chronologically slot the show in just before the police catch him, I have kept Alex’s attitude of his enjoyment of violence. When the schoolmaster has been beaten up and staggers off, that is the last we have heard of him in the novel, I decided to give him a voice and see what he would have said about his attack. So why did I choose to do this? ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ is a dysfunctional show and Alex is a dysfunctional character. Jerry Springer’s show is amoral TV; it is outrageous, shocking, scandalous and hilarious. The show has no limits. Nearly all stories have major big twists that unfold as more guests get called out. These guests often get violent and try to kick and punch other parties involved, whilst typically Jerry tries to redeem his guests. This is why I think it works well with the character of Alex and his behaviour seen in the novel. The novel represents the society in which Alex lives in as complete dystopian, dark and dismal, with no law and order. ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ is a chat show, although it is very staged with his agenda-setting questions and appearing guests, the show is almost entirely full of spontaneous speech. Therefore I decided to do a transcript version of the show, although obviously not true to its discourse as I would be giving the characters a voice as appose to spontaneous speech written down as it is heard. Jerry Springer, as an American, has his own geographical dialect. It was important to keep this as well as phrases ‘singly the best audience’ and his own idiolect ‘right’, ‘well’, ‘hey’, ‘so’, to indicate his regional origin. Jerry has an informal register that contains much ellipsis, such as â€Å"you’re singly the best† and â€Å"here ’cause you love†. The graphology of the transformation is laid out in the convention of the transcript. The names of the characters have been placed on the left hand side indicating who is talking and to the right, is what is actually being said: â€Å"Alex: are you saying do i enjoy lubbilubbing with a devotchas Janet: against their will alex against their will Alex: not recently no em† Sounds that are not fore grounded I have placed in italics for example, the audience’s reactions to the quests comments â€Å"(Audience boos loudly)†. As this is a transcript and not a play, I have not included stage directions or actions taken by the characters, as a recording of the show a transcript would only contain sounds heard on the recorder. The syntax of Alex and his friends, in the novel, is completely different to that of any other characters. The Nadsat slang has derived from many different language sources but many are Slavic in origin. A mixture of Russian and demotic English, with elements of rhyming slang and gypsy talk, ‘O my brothers’, as well as anglicized words and amputations ’em’, ‘pee’.