Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange has been placed under much scrutiny by literary critics and readers everywhere. Furthermore, this highly criticized novel contains a myriad of ways to engage with the work, whether it is from the psychological or ethical perspective. Through College Literature Journal’s article “O My Brothers”, the unnamed author draws interesting connections between the main character’s development and how pseudo-families and pseudo- self plays a part on this said development. The author of this article generates an association between Alex’s pseudo-families who have not accomplished what families are expected to accomplish in one’s life, and the way that Alex behaves because of it. Interestingly enough, the author states that because of Alex’s families lacking in the required support and life changing opportunities that families must have, his behavior in the novel is wholly justified and typical. Ultimately, the author is attempting to state that because of his negative interactions with the pseudo-family in the work, he is “…unable to effect the process of morphogenesis that might provide him with the means for finally glimpsing a mature…self” (O My Brothers 23). So, because of Alex’s destructive relations with this pseudo-family, he cannot help but act the way he does, due to the pseudo-family preventing him from developing and growing as an individual. However, as stimulating as these associations are for readers to delve into and endeavor to understand, the article has major flaws in its development. These flaws not only make it difficult for readers to understand the fundamentals of the argument and its structure, but they also leave the argument severely lacking in the support that it requires to mak...
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...rk like of heaven…” (Burgess 46). So, even while his pseudo-self is enacting this horror, his true self is making the act less harsh through the appreciation of music. Here, the music is a barrier between the horrors he is committing between his pseudo-self and his true self. So, the ultimate question here is if Alex’s behaviors are a result of his dysfunctional family or are simply the struggles of a battle between individuality and peer pressure, and how this struggle can completely envelop an individual?
Works Cited
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1986. Print.
""O My Brothers": Reading the Anti-Ethics of the Pseudo- Family in Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange"" College Literature 29.2 (2002): 19-36. JSTOR. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. .
A hero is considered to be any man noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose;
...erson of increasingly reputable morals. Now Alex wants to break away from the group and adopts more the philosophy that “Madness is rare in individuals—but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule” (Neitzsche 90).
In John Connolly’s novel, The Book of Lost Things, he writes, “for in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be”. Does one’s childhood truly have an effect on the person one someday becomes? In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, this question is tackled through the recounting of Jeannette and Amir’s childhoods from the perspectives of their older, more developed selves. In the novels, an emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the relationships Jeannette and Amir have with their fathers while growing up, and the effects that these relations have on the people they each become. The environment to which they are both exposed as children is also described, and proves to have an influence on the characteristics of Jeannette and Amir’s adult personalities. Finally, through the journeys of other people in Jeannette and Amir’s lives, it is demonstrated that the sustainment of traumatic experiences as a child also has a large influence on the development of one’s character while become an adult. Therefore, through the analysis of the effects of these factors on various characters’ development, it is proven that the experiences and realities that one endures as a child ultimately shape one’s identity in the future.
There are many books that have been banned or challenged, but the one that is being presented in this paper is Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. The topic of this paper is to inform you of many things and when you have finished it will have you leaving asking yourself one question. First, a summary of A Clockwork Orange will be shared with you, so that you can have an insight as to how the rest of the paper relates to the book. Second, you will find out where, why and when the book was banned and/or challenged and you will discover what the book contains that would “offend” people. Finally, you will discover the literary merit of this book, which means you will discover if is a work of quality.
Every American has grown up with these words, lived by these words, and thusly, accepted them as a given: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This sentence has made its place in the United States Constitution as well, and there are variations of this all over the world—“liberté, egalité, fraternité” (liberty, equality, fraternity) in France, “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” (unity, justice, and freedom) in Germany, and many more. Not having to curtail speech, have every move checked, or suppress individuality are gifts, often taken for granted in today’s society. People go about their day, not having a second thought about choosing when to smoke a cigarette or being able to play a game of cards with friends without fighting for it. But in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, personal freedom, a sense of self, and individuality are withheld from the patients in an Oregon insane asylum. The asylum itself is symbolic of society and how it pressures people to act a certain way, and portrays how deviating even slightly from the label “normal” is cause for being confined. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, characters such as Chief Bromden and Dale Harding are prime examples for how society manipulates differences into weaknesses, and only with the aid of Randle McMurphy are they able to reassert themselves and defy society’s conformity.
Very few modern or even classical novels present a psychological tale like that presented in Anthony Burgess's magnum opus and controversial novel, A Clockwork Orange. The novel follows the protagonist and narrator, Alex, who is not a given a surname until the film adaptation. Alex, while the protagonist of the novel, is a violent person up to the second to last chapter of the novel. However, the underlying psychology behind every one of Alex's actions rings true and presents a compelling argument about the nature of free will, violence, and what makes a man human.
Society often pressures individuals within it to conform to different ideals and norms. This stems from the fact that individuals in a society are expected to act in a certain way. If a person or group of people do not satisfy society’s expectations, they are looked down upon by others. This can lead to individuals isolating themselves from others, or being isolated from others, because they are considered as outcasts. The emotional turmoil that can result from this, as well as the internal conflict of whether or not to conform, can transform an individual into a completely different person. This transformation can either be beneficial or harmful to the individual as well as those around them. The individual can become an improved version of himself or herself but conversely, they can become violent, rebellious and destructive. The novels Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess both explore the negative effects experienced by individuals living within the confines of society’s narrow-mindedness. In A Clockwork Orange, protagonist Alex was the leader of a small group of teenage criminals. He did not have a healthy relationship with either one of his parents or with others around him. Instead he spent most of his time alone during the day and at night roamed the streets in search of victims he could mug or rape. In Fight Club the unnamed protagonist was an outcast in his community. He chose to distance and isolate himself from others and as a result had no friends, with the exception of Tyler Durden and Marla Singer. Due to his isolation, he often participated in nightly fights that took place in Fight Club so that he could relieve his anxiety and stress. In this way, Alex and the unnamed protagoni...
A Clockwork Orange was claimed by many to be Burgess's greatest accomplishment. The main character, Alex, is a young teen with a drive for violence, rape and general rebellion without remorse, yet he still has a charming intelligent quality. The law finally catches him and he is convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. After two years he becomes aware of a route to early release and after killing a cellmate he is elected (almost voluntarily) to be the first to travel it. However, the process is not at all what he expected it to be. He soon finds himself being subjected to immoral films and induced illness to condition him to become ill at even the thought of a "bad" act. When conditioning is complete, A...
conscious and subconscious mind. In a novel, the emotions of an author are manifested as a story of a protagonist and his world. The protagonist is created as the author’s persona, and the setting of the story parallels events from the author’s past. In Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, the protagonist Alex DeLarge is a direct projection of Burgess’s psyche. Analysis of Burgess’s childhood confirms the psychoanalytic theory that Alex and his fictional experiences within A Clockwork Orange are the result of thoughts, fears, and desires that were suppressed by Burgess’s conscious mind throughout his life. Just as Burgess did, Alex struggles with developing and maintaining healthy relations, the choice between what is “right” and what is “wrong”, and the challenge of growing up.
In A Clockwork Orange, Burgess uses unique language, contrast between day and night, and the final chapter to explore the communication gap and the generational cycle that exists within society.
The beginning of this book puzzles the reader. It doesn't clearly state the setting and plot in the first chapter; it almost leaves the mood open to how the reader interprets it. In the romance story The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks, the plot then shifts from a nursing home to a small town -- New Bern, North Carolina. It baffles the reader so much that it urges one to read on. The romance of Noah and Allie in this book is so deep and complex that it will bring a tear to the eye of any reader.
Families are described in all shapes and sizes in books of literature. The perfect family, the loving family, the illiterate family, and more significantly, the dysfunctional family are all found in literature. The dictionary definition of a dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict often occurs in an in orderly fashion, thus leading children to grow up with the understanding that such an arrangement is normal rather than dysfunctional. Even though the background or story behind the dysfunctional families in works of literature are different they all share a few traits and aspects in common. Dysfunctional families in literature each follow a road map that involves three distinct traits. These aspects are; how others, society and the outside world view the dysfunction, the unfolding of the shaping process and how each character responds to the dysfunction whether through overcoming it or letting it destroy them. Each of these points are functions of a dysfunctional family found in many works of literature and thus they shape literature and the reading world to what it is today. As Dr. David Stoop quotes, “We are what we learn” and in dysfunctional families there is room for learning, improvement and destruction.
Jane does not experience a typical family life throughout the novel. Her various living arrangements led her through different households, yet none were a representation of the norm of family life in the nineteenth century. Through research of families in the nineteenth century, it is clear that Jane’s life does not follow with the stereotypical family made up of a patriarchal father and nurturing mother, both whose primary focus was in raising their children. Jane’s life was void of this true family experience so common during the nineteenth century. Yet, Jane is surrounded by men, who in giving an accurate portrayal of fathers and masculinity in the nineteenth century, fulfill on one hand the father role that had never been present in her life, and on the other hand the husband portrait that Jane seeks out throughout the novel.
Throughout the first stage of Alex’s life, his choices between good and evil are very obvious as he chooses to be evil over good in every situation. One could consider this stage of a mechanical nature in which Alex just does what he wanted to do, he is reckless and does not think abo...
Society has always had an influence on the way people think and act. Many beliefs and actions viewed as unique are many times shunned upon by members of society. This constraint on being an individual is explored in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Joyce’s “The Boarding House.” Both authors show how society’s constraints put stress on individuals’ lives. In some cases this stress is good for the characters, but for some characters society’s constraints are too much.