Government's Effect on Free Will in A Clockwork Orange
The term "clockwork orange" is referenced various times throughout Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange; however, the phrase "a clockwork orange" is only mentioned in the novel when it is associated with government. From the very first page it is established that the main character, Alex, is a rebellious 15 year old whose interests include violence and classical music. However, his criminal tendencies do not sit well with the government. While being incarcerated, he is subject to torturous experimental conditioning by the government in an attempt to rid him of his violent impulses and ultimately his free will. When being presented in front of an audience as evidence of the Ludovico
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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
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 can be characterized as a dystopian novella as a result of the world that Burgess created throughout the book. Alex’s world provides a future rendition of London if it were to continue going down the path it was on after World War II, one of a violent youth culture. This especially comes from the fact that his wife was beaten by a few Americans stationed in England during the war. This particular event’s influence on the novella can be seen through the various scenes where Alex and his “droogs” are seen sexually assaulting women. Burgess was also influenced by Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. A Clockwork Orange experiences the Pelagian-Augustinian phases of rule found in the aforementioned books, respectively (Morris ). The Pelagian phase can be seen in the beginning of the novel where Alex and his “droogs” are essent...
And a Clockwork universe is comparing the universe as a mechanical clock, it’s a perfect contraption, but every aspect of it is science controlling it. So, I asked questions after each paragraph about Alex. With Alex being a deviant criminal in the beginning due to his environment which wasn’t his fault for being the way he was to being put through “treatment” that cured him to be a perfect citizen, he still wasn’t fully “cured”. Once Alex was put into the real world he became the perfect victim, and he was put through horrific acts just like he used to do to his victims and tried to commit suicide. With jumping out a window Alex’s new conditioning isn’t a thing anymore, he doesn’t get ill when subjected to violence and is able to listen to his favorite song by Beethoven without getting sick also.
Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange frequently employs irony for a variety of purposes. While much of the irony Burgess uses is situational, and is mostly meant to deconstruct the reader’s pre established sense of morality, he also uses dramatic irony to frustratingly detach the reader from the novel. In the second chapter of the book, Alex and his “droogies” break into the cottage of an author named F. Alexander, severely beating the man and raping his wife. During the break-in, Alex stumbles across a manuscript titled A CLOCKWORK ORANGE which states:“The attempt to impose upon a man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness...laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my swordpen”(25). It should be painfully obvious to the reader that this
A Clockwork Orange follows a teenager by the name of Alex, who teams up with his hoodlum friends in the night hours to commit a little bit of the old ultra violence. After one of Alex's droogs challenges his leadership and loses, all of his friends turn on him, and our humble narrator is arrested and sent to prison for murder. In prison, Alex volunteers for a radical new treatment, which can cure him of his evilness, in exchange for a shortened sentence. Alex is released back into society, only to have the people he has wronged take their revenge on him. He finally finds redemption by living a normal life in society.
The modern field of cognitive science combines research from fields such as computer science, psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience in order to study the processes of the mind. Using a framework of representational structures and operational procedures, cognitive science has been able to make significant contributions to the study of cognition and information processing. This interdisciplinary approach has been so successful that its application has been extended to areas like metaphysics, which was once considered to be outside the realm of empirical study; theorists hope that cognitive science may provide insight into questions related to the fundamental nature of existence, such as the debate between free will and determinism.
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.
Was it Fate?... Not Really. Some people may think that their lives are governed by fate but that’s not the case. People are responsible for the decisions that change their life path. They can make a good decision that will change their life for the better, but they can also make a bad decision that can change their life for the worse.
Psychopathic and Hyper-Violent Tendencies in Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange Since it was published in 1962 Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange has been a staple in psychological literature. With the use of main character Alex; a teenager driven by psychological illness, as a plot motivator, the novel offers insight into the mind of the psychotic.
Freedom and liberalism are catchwords that appear frequently in both philosophical and political rhetoric. A free man is able to choose his actions and his value system, to express his views and to develop his most authentic character. What this kind of idealistic liberalism seems to forget, however, is that liberty does not mean a better society, better life or humanistic values such as equality and justice. In his novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), Anthony Burgess portrays an ultimately free individual and shows how a society cannot cope with the freedom which it in rhetoric so eagerly seeks to promote.
The behavioral scientists at the prison, including Dr. Brodsky and Dr. Branom, emphasize the significance of free will on humanity in A Clockwork Orange. The protagonist, Alex, is characterized by his violent tendencies. After they subject
The significance of evil as well as good in human nature was a central aspect of the novel. Alex is despicable due to his irrational and reckless acts, but that sense of freedom is also what makes him human, as “The important thing is a 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.” Consequently the freedom of individuals to make choices becomes a problem when those choices undermine the safety and stability of society. This essential need of evil as well as good in human nature is a significantly controversial issue in modern society; this controversy allows the readers to ponder their own role in society. Thus, engaging the readers. In A Clockwork Orange, the government is willing to protect society by taking away freedom of choice through the Ludovico Technique that eliminates the evil aspects of an individual, therefore Alex becomes less of a threat to society, but he becomes nothing more than a thing as “When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man”. Burgess believes that the freedom to choose is the greatest human attribute, meaning that the presence of moral choice distinguishes human beings from other machines and animals. This belief allows the readers to build their own perspectives on the novel’s plot and
A Psychological Analysis of Alex in A Clockwork Orange & nbsp; In A Clockwork Orange, Alex is portrayed as two different people living within the same body of mind. As a mischievous child raping the world, he was as seen as filth. His actions and blatant disrespect towards society are categorized under that of the common street bum. However, when he is away from his evening attire. he is that of suave.
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.
Human nature is about free will, and using one’s free will for good acts. We know free will exists because living things are being changed day after day. Any act, from walking across a room to deciding to eat a meal, is because of free will. We are given free will and with that, the ability to create our own, unique path in life. Free will provides human beings with freedom, judgement, and responsibility. Every human being is born with the capability to live a good, just life. However it is just as possible to live an immoral life led by bad choices. This notion of endless options in life is made possible by God’s gift of free will. No two human lives will ever be the same, because no two people will ever have the exact same experiences their entire lives. Every human being is shaped by experience, which comes from our actions, which are results of free will.