1. Our protagonist is a narcissistic mayhem loving juvenile who, with his not so faithful “droogs,” participates in delinquent acts throughout the novel. It appears that our protagonist has no remorse for his actions such as rape, theft, destruction of property, assault, and ultimately even murder. Once Alex is imprisoned for his murder, he turns to the bible and befriends the priest. His fondness for religion in his new surrounding seems to be a constructive outlet for Alex; however, we are soon shown that Alex fixates on the violence within the bible when he mentions that he could see himself as a roman soldier, in the height of fashion, beating Jesus as he carried his cross. Alex is desperate to not spend his 14 year sentence in prison so he decides to volunteer himself for a radically new treatment that is said to cure people of their immoral behaviors. Alex undergoes the treatment which associates wrong-doing, maladjusted behavior with feeling ill. He therefore no longer has the capacity to make his own choices, good or bad, because if he chooses to do badly, he is overcome with a feeling of getting ill until he refrains from the action or thoughts and is forced to do proper behavior in order to keep the feelings the feelings of becoming ill at bay. This is seen several times in the book. In the first instance of Alex being forced to do no wrong, he must lick the shoe of a pesky actor who has been called upon to test the stamina and success of Alex’s treatment. Although Alex does not want to participate in submission, he has to because his thoughts of punching the gentleman make him physically ill. Likewise when the officials produce a beautiful woman, one that Alex admits he would have previously ravished, he feel... ... middle of paper ... ... Alex received little control from his parents. In several instances the parenting methods used by his parents gave him too much of his own discretion. In one instance his mother allowed him to stay in from school and it is implied that this is a regular occurrence. This example acts doubly negative in that he has no responsibility to maintain a set schedule of structure but also that school itself can act as a form of control against delinquency because it gives an individual stakes in conformity. Alex also succumbs to labeling. . Alex was under probation so it may be that he continued to act delinquently because he internalized what those around him labeled him as. Once Alex received his treatment and was released back into society he was seen repetitively as a criminal. People recognized him as the man who brutally killed whether he was cured or not.
In conclusion it is seen that Alex has effectively changed into a man and has become a morally sensitive individual. He, for himself has chosen good
... Alex eventually grows up. Violence, at the end of the novel, ceases to be his most desired form of creativity. Alex is ready to put his energies elsewhere. "At eighteen old Wolfgang Amadeus had written concertos and symphonies and operas and oratorios and all that cal, no, not cal, heavenly music" (189). The Ludovico technique that would have destroyed Alex would not have been something he could outgrow.
3.) The methods of the treatment to rehabilitate Alex weren’t the most appropriate ones. They made him watch film after film over and over again until Alex became “good”. They showed him these violent films so Alex could get disgusted and never think of using violence ever again.
When he meets his friends he notices that there is some kind of tension between them. Then the start a new tour were they find a great house for playing a trick. They play the same trick but at that time the old woman in the house is suspicious and doesn’t open the door. So Alex goes alone through the window. While he steals some things, the woman phones the police. As they meet each other they start fighting. Alex quite kills the old lady and the police arrest him. He is found guilty for murder and should go to prison for fourteen years.
Burgess states: “The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate. Life is sustained by the grinding opposition of moral entities” (Burgess XIII). The government will always try to maintain order, but alex still has the right to live his life how he pleases. every criminal act that alex does, he chooses. This perplexes the government leading them to question alex’s home life. If alex’s home life is unsatisfactory, it would explain his criminal tendencies. However, there are no factors of alex’s homelife that would explain his nature. P. R. Deltoid says to alex, “ You’ve got a good home here, good loving parents, [...] [i]s it some devil that crawls inside you?” P. R. Deltoid is trying to figure out why alex is the way he is but what he doesn't understand is that there is not “cause”, alex is the way he is because he chooses to be. Even so, alex is not destined to stay evil. In the final chapter of a clockwork orange, one of alex’s former partner in crime, pete, tells him that he has settled down and started a family leading alex to reflect on his life, realize that he is no longer happy living a criminal lifestyle, and decide to mature and change his
All Alex knew was to be violent due to the failure and lack of family structure, the school system and the law. The lack of these assertive institutions Alex couldn’t properly generate proper moral values and social norms. According to Mead he analyzed that a child gets some sort of understanding of how to act properly by how others act toward the child. Later on in the child’s development he/she learns and understands “the generalized other”, values and cultural rules (textbook). Alex was never pressured into going to school, there is one scene where his mother wakes him and tells him to get ready for school and Alex tells her “he doesn’t feel like going today” and that was the end of it. With Alex missing out on school he never really self-aware and knowledgeable. His family is absent also. Again with Alex telling his mother he doesn’t feel like going to school and his mother just lets it go shows the carelessness of his parents. Alex can pretty much do whatever he wants when he wants. With their lack of parenting he never truly gained proper values and morals and instead he created his own by the morals and values his “droogs” know. He had many run in’s with the police even before he was
Alex and his “droogs'; set the town ablaze by committing horrific acts of violence. He loves doing what his society says is wrong. During one of their night rides, Alex and his droogs, ripped out an old man’s teeth. Then to show real malice crunched them under his boot. If that was not enough they then treated the old man to a knuckle sandwich (Burgess 7). Torturing old people is just one of there outrageous escapades. Another incident is when Alex and his droogs broke into this couples house. After beating up the husband he turned to his wife. “O my brother while I got untrussed and got ready for plunge. Plunging, I could slooshy cries of agony and this writer bleeding veck that Georgie and Pete held on to nearly got loose';(Burgess 23). He thought as he violated this man’s wife. He has no remorse or even knowledge that what he is doing is wrong.
Alex supports the notion that suffering with the freedom of choice is better than forced morality at any cost. After Alex is restored to his former, evil self, Alex realizes that he is no longer content with the adolescent scene, and begins his assimilation into working-class
Otherwise, why now the parents spend a lot of money to send their children to a good school to study, because the school education environment to the children’s influence is very important. When Wes A moved to Bronx, his mother had made a decision to send her children to private school after her seeing how poor the public school system had become, so she worked multiple jobs to manage the cost and relied on her parents to take care the children before and after school while at work. “My mother decided soon after our move to the Bronx that I was not going to public school. She wasn’t a snob, she was scared.”(47) Because she knew, if the children are growth of a bad education environment, the children of the world to know nature will be distorted. Without a good education, there is also no habits; No good sense, and also there will be some bad behavior. Today, the rate of crime is high; almost all can find the root cause of their growth environment. Maybe the lack of discipline, discouraged by mistake friends or too much stress, but all shows the importance of good education environment for children to grow
This uninhibited behavior by Alex is what leads to his eventual downfall. While living in a society where Alex was free to take things into his own hands, where he is able to rape, torture, and murder at his own discretion, he was experiencing a lifestyle free of oppression, moral, or immoral. However it is Alex’s over-abuse of his free-will that causes him to be arrested and jailed. While in jail new character traits arise from a “conditioned” (Burgess, 80) Alex. It is evident that the rigorous conditioning and oppression against Alex, sensitized him against violence, thus curbing him towards a moral outlook on life. “But, sir, sirs, I see that it’s wro...
a utopian society and stop being so violent. He has lost his own freewill and his identity. When ever Alex thinks of violent images he then gets sick to his stomach.
To begin, Alex is one out of the four characters that reveals self-awareness broadly. Alex begins by stating, “What’s it going to be then, eh” (Burgess 1). The use of this quote explains to the reader that Alex is not only self-aware of himself, but he is careless, and he is an outlaw. Another quote that Alex states throughout the novel is, “O my brothers” (Burgess 5). “O my brothers” reve...
Alex goes in for treatment to cure his ultra-violence. The treatment is a conditioning method where he is to watch terribly movies with his eyes held open. After many, many views Alex gets sick at the slightest hint of any voilence or sex.
Sitting in the Korova milk bar, the four droogs prepare for their evening on the town. The dimly lit bar, which served milk spiked with the drug of your choice, was host to the strange and bizarre of London's criminal subculture. The four outlandish gang members shared a booth, scanning the milkbar, vultures looking for the latest in decayed cuisine. They wore what they deemed "the height of fashion", black tights, lapel-less waistcoats, and derbies with the mandatory cane accompaniment. After getting their fill of the spiked "moloko", they leave the bar.
In the first chapter, Alex and his droogs assault an old man, rob a shop, and beat the shop owner and his wife. After all of this is done, Alex says, “Still, the night was still very young”(Burgess 15). This not only implies that their violent acts will continue, but also implies that this is a normal activity for him to partake in. While most kids Alex’s age go to school and do chores for their pee and em, Alex assaults people on a daily basis. Another key moment that highlights Alex’s violent nature is his interaction with F. Alexander and his wife. Alex led his droogs into the country and said, “What we were after now was the old surprise visit”(Burgess 23). A surprise visit is basically Alex breaking into a random house and assaulting whoever is inside. The fact that he has little names like “surprise visit” for his violent act shows how he just rubs off whatever he does as something that doesn’t even matter. Even at the end of the book Alex just rubs his horrific actions off as just being a part of