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.
Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester, England on February 25, 1917. When he was a child of one-year-old his mother and sister passed away due to the influenza epidemic. He continued living with his father who soon was remarried to the owner of a pub. Anthony’s father played piano at the pub and Anthony began composing his own music at the early age of fourteen In 1940 Burgess joined the army and was put in the medical corps. Two years later he married Llewela Isherwood Jones. Burgess, soon after his marriage, left the army, started writing and teaching English. In 1968 Llewela died and Burgess was remarried to Lilina Macellari. They left England in 1968 and
to read. A Clockwork Orange is an interesting book, to say the least, about a young teenager, named Alex, who has lost his way, so to speak, and commits several serious crimes. These crimes that Alex and his “droogs” commit include: murdering, raping, beat downs, robbery, etc.
A Clockwork Orange is Kubrick’s one of the best works. This film is about the futuristic government state where citizens are estranged and blinded by the ferocious youth culture. Film is exceedingly thought infuriating as well as unsettling. This film is not just not about sex and violence, but it has a deep and psychological notion behind it.
With freedom comes a great deal of responsibility which is the major theme of the book, Clockwork Orange. In the book, Alex says, “Nobody will tell me what I get out of this. Tortured in jail, thrown out of my own home by my own parents and their filthy overbearing lodger, beaten by old men and nearly killed by millicents--what is to become of me?” (183). This quote clearly exemplifies the meaning of the book. When people get the privilege to live freely, they have to honor that freedom. Once something is done against the law or the norms of society; there are consequences. Jail is a major role when it comes to settling consequences, and if jail is the punishment being treated like a trash is a given. Connecting this to the book, Alex went to jail because of all his murders he convicted. He was not treated with any respect because he did not deserve it. When Alex learned the hard way that respect is gained he wanted to change his ways, but no one wanted to be part of his life anymore. Not even his parents. Once the freedom is taken away nothing is ever the same, and this is what happened to
Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange describes a horrific world in an apathetic society has allowed its youth to run wild. The novel describes the senseless violence perpetrated by teens, who rape women and terrorize the elderly. The second part of the novel describes how the protagonist, Alex, is "cured" by being drugged and then forced to watch movies of atrocities. The novel warns against both senseless violence and senseless goodness - of the danger of not being allowed to choose between good and evil.
The two works suggest that freedom of choice needs to be taken away for the greater good of society. In A Clockwork Orange, social safety and security are the driving forces behind removing freedom from the people, especially Alex, the main character. The start of the movie depicts the struggle of a violent youth that exercises free will in an oppressive but safe and stable society. Alex and his gang, termed droogs, symbolize free will as they attempt to liberate themselves from all government limitations. They indulge in vices shunned by the society such as rape and murder, and bring out the dark side of free will by expressing themselves against a society that encourages safety. Alex’s violent nature makes him a threat and in an attempt to impose order, the government forces Alex to be “transformed out of all recognition” (A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick). T...
...ckwork orange is one of the many books banned in different venues across the world but there is many reasons including why it shouldn’t be banned. Although the book may contain some unpleasant and disturbing scenes it asserts some very important topics about free will, good and evil that could relate to our modern society. One of the most frequently asked questions in the book asks whether or not a “man who chooses the bad is perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him” (Burgess 109 Marmalade). This will let the reader go off and wonder about this topic freely and at will and will let the reader make a discussion for himself/herself. Banning the book only blinds the people of the real truth in the world. Everyday people get raped and murdered and this is what is happing in A Clockwork Orange and it shouldn’t be banned for these reasons.
Anthony Burgess’ novel, A Clockwork Orange has been called shocking, controversial, and horrifying. A Clockwork Orange is controversial, but to focus merely on the physical aspects of the work is time wasted. Burgess is concerned with the issue of ethics. He believes that goodness comes directly from choice; it is better to choose the bad than to be forced into doing the good. For taking away a person’s free will is simply turning them into a piece of “clockwork”; a piece of machine containing all the sweet juices of life, but incapable of being human.
Anthony Burgess integrates many social issues today between the Government and People into Clockwork Orange. Many of the issues that Alex faces along with the government are relatable in today’s society. Within the story Anthony Burgess teaches us how people act and how the government works in a more brutal way, The Clockwork Orange expresses this through free-will, maturity and karma, and treatment of people.
Amidst a population composed of perfectly conditioned automatons, is a picture of a society that is slowly rotting from within. Alex, the Faustian protagonist of A Clockwork Orange, and a sadistic and depraved gang leader, preys on the weak and the innocent. Although perhaps misguided, his conscientiousness of his evil nature indicates his capacity to understand morality and deny its practice. When society attempts to force goodness upon Alex, he becomes the victim. Through his innovative style, manifested by both the use of original language and satirical structure, British author Anthony Burgess presents in his novella A Clockwork Orange, the moral triumph of free will within the controlling hands of a totalitarian society.
The Giver by Lois Lowry and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley have many similarities. They both take place in futuristic utopias where happiness is the overall goal. Jonas and Bernard, the major characters in the novels, are both restless individuals who want change. Despite the close similarities, there are many contrasts in the two novels. The childhood, family, and professions arrangements are differently portrayed in the similar novels The Giver and Brave New World.
Kelly, William E., Kathryn E. Kelly, Robert C. Clanton. College Student Journal. Mar. 2008: 84-86.
Existentialism as a mid-20th century philosophical trend introduced the idea of an absolutely free individual into the scheme of modern and postmodern individualism. A Clockwork Orange is a novel that raises a wide range of ethical questions from the definition of free choice and goodness to methods of punishment. Existentialism in the form presented by Jean-Paul Sartre and the German phenomenologists does not provide an ethical nor a psychological perspective to the novel. Applying 'existentialist thought' to Anthony Burgess' work will, however, give understanding of the narrator Alex as a case of a free individual who attempts to construct his world and relate to it authentically. Hence the main issue to be examined is the necessity of self-definition and the extent of its discouragement in Alex's social environment.
In the novel A Clockwork Orange, the author Anthony Burgess tells a story about a young man name Alex and his friends, every night they go around and start committing violent acts. In the novel Alex expresses his freedom of choice between good and evil. The freedom of choice is a decision that every person must make throughout his life in order to guide his actions and to take control of his own future. This Freedom of Choice, no matter what the outcome is, displays person power as an individual, and any efforts to control or influence this choice between good and evil will take way the person free will and enslave him. In this novel the author uses this symbolism through imagery. He shows that through the character of Alex, and the first person narrative point of view to prove that without the ability to choose between good and evil person becomes a slave.
The Plot and Setting in Never Let Me Go greatly differs from novel to film, chiefly in the first scene. The first narrated line is Kathy introducing herself