Shared Themes in A Clockwork Orange and Never Let Me Go

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A Clockwork Orange and Never Let Me go are both set in a dystopian future. They both deal with a young protagonist trying to accept their fate in their respective societies. However. They are very different people, Alex Delarge is very impulsive and quick to anger person, Kathy H. is very empathetic and mild-mannered person. But they can still both be considered an “anti-hero”, they have that in common. Therefore both of these books share many themes, but since they were written in two different time periods, and the societies of these dystopian futures are very different, they have different approaches/views as to how to deal with the problems present in the novels.
Both novels are written by English authors and both take place in England. But Clockwork Orange was written in the 1960’s “future”, which is now the past. Never Let Me Go was written in 2005, but takes place in an alternate 1990’s, which would also make it the past. They still relate in the fact they are a future in which the government tries to dictate to keep some kind of order. It seems that they both go extremes to keep or move the society to where they would like it be. But since the novels were written in completely different time periods the authors seem to take different approaches to very similar themes. In both of the novels they take a deep view at themes dealing with government power, freedom of choice, the complexity of what makes a person “human”, and morality.
Anthony Burgess’s experiences in life are a basis for the novel. Anthony claims the most traumatic scene in the novel, when F. Alexander’s wife was raped and died because of it, was supposedly inspired by the event that happened during the London 1944 wartime blackout. During the blackout his w...

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...about. In the process of the governments’ actions the question of humanity is brought up. However, they took different approaches as to what makes an individual a human person.

Works Cited

Bolin, Micheal. "Explorations: The UC Davis Undergraduate Research Journal."UC Davis Undergraduate Research Center: Explorations. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2014.
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: Norton, 1986. Print.
"The International Anthony Burgess Foundation." International Anthony Burgess Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2014.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Print.
Marcks, Catherine. "Never Let Me Go - Finding Who We Are." Never Let Me Go - Finding Who We Are. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
Simions, Minodora O. "FREEDOM OF CHOICE AND MORAL CONSEQUENCES IN ANTHONY BURGESS’ A CLOCKWORK ORANGE." (2013): 65-68. Web. 21 May 2013.

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