Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis of a clockwork orange
Analysis of a clockwork orange
Analysis of a clockwork orange
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Analysis of a clockwork orange
Imagine having stolen, raped, and even murdered all at the age of 15. The new canon of dark literature and controversy has finally hit the stage. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess written in 1962 could only be described in the old cockney expression “queer as a clockwork orange”. Meaning it is bizarre internally, but appears natural on the surface. The story begins with the protagonist and narrator Alex a 15-year-old boy, who sets the bar for the most cold-blooded and callous characters of literature. His droogs, Pete, Georgie and Dim, who was really dim, would spend their time in the Korova Milkbar drinking drug laced milk. After a good drink of the milk-plus mesto, Alex and his three droogs were ready to commit the good old ultra-violence. In this dystopian world, violence is glorified throughout the younger generation and terrorize innocent people. The main concept of this book is whether goodness should be chosen or forced upon. A Clockwork Orange may seem like a disturbing shocker, but it is considered a classic for a reason. Its controversial subject may overlook the true beauty of its grand literature and philosophical questions. What makes it truly great is raising the ethical question of human morality and essence, the experimental use of a fictional language, and it’s musical theme.
The type of language a book uses is essential, and Burgess’ take on language is unequivocally unique and artistic. In the introduction of the book, Anthony Burgess states “Nasdat, a Russianfied version of English was meant to muffle the raw response...It turns the book into a linguistic adventure. People preferred the film because they are scared, rightly, of language.” (3) Though many people are afraid of language and Nadsat may seem f...
... middle of paper ...
...York: Norton, 1986. Print.
Gilchrist, Sophie. Free Will In A Clockwork Orange. Tech. no. HIST - 303. N.p., 30 May 2012. Web. .
Gintis, Herbert, Joseph Henrich, Samuel Bowles, Robert Boyd, and Ernst Fehr. "Strong Reciprocity and the Roots of Human Morality." Social Justice Research 21.2 (2008): 241-53. Print.
Mikulaková, Radka. "The Picture of an Anti-hero in A Clockwork Orange." Thesis. Masaryk University, 2009. Web. .
Newman, Bobby. "A Clockwork Orange: Burgess and Behavioral Interventions." Behavior and Social Issues 1.2 (1991): n. pag. Print
Nixon, Martin. "The Use and Effects of Fictional Argot in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange." (n.d.): n. pag. Web. .
The moral economy functions by enveloping individuals into systems of reciprocity that operate as a key to their daily survival. Bourgois and Schonberg document how these individuals constantly seek one another
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.
A hero is considered to be any man noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose;
Imagine being stuck in a mental hospital for twenty years where everyone thinks you are deaf and mute. This is what happened to Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Chief Bromden, or Chief, has lived in a mental hospital for over twenty years. He was admitted to the hospital after serving in the Second World War. He is a six-foot seven-inch tall schizophrenic Indian who has convinced the whole ward that he is deaf and mute, and he is the narrator of the story. He is not a very reliable narrator due to his schizophrenia, so some of the events are distorted. Throughout the story, Chief Bromden is reminded of events from his childhood, which reveal little bits and pieces about his character and his uncommon past. The ward he is on is controlled by the Big Nurse, who has emasculated everyone and has complete control over everything and everyone there. She requires everything to be done her way and like clockwork. That all changes when Randle Patrick McMurphy arrives. McMurphy, mandated to the mental hospital by the courts, starts challenging the rules made by the Big Nurse as soon as he arrives, to help improve the lives of all of the patients on the ward. McMurphy also takes some of the patients on wacky adventures. For example, he convinces the Big Nurse to let him and a few other patients go on a fishing trip with his aunt. Except, instead of his aunt, he hires a prostitute to take them in her place. He also starts a basketball league with all of the patients as a way to exercise, but that ends after the basketball breaks through the Big Nurse’s window multiple times. The patients are divided into two groups: the chronics, who have no hope of being cured, and the acutes, who are not nearly a...
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.
Overvold, Mark C. "Morality, Self-Interest, and Reasons for Being Moral." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 44.4 (1984): 493-507. JSTOR. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
There have been many books published solely on philosophy, and many more than that solely written about human nature, but very infrequently will a book be published that weaves these fields together as well as A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. In this Book Burgess speculated on the fact “the significance of maturing by choice is to gain moral values and freedoms.” He achieved this task by pushing his angsty teenaged character, Alex, through situations that challenge the moral values of himself and his friends. In the novel, A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, Alex himself, must choose good over evil in order to gain moral values which will allow him to mature into a “man” in the latter of his two transformations.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
In many works of literature a character conquers great obstacles to achieve a worthy goal. Sometimes the obstacles are personal impediment, at other times it consists of the attitude and beliefs of others. In the book The Stranger by Albert Camus, shows the character Meursault who is an emotionless character that let’s other people show their opinions and emotions into him giving him a type of feeling even if Meursault doesn’t care. Meursault contains occasion of his emotional indifference between his friends and social indifference. This essay will be about the character’s struggle contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
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.
Beauchamp, T. L.(2003). A Defense of the Common Morality. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 13(3), 259-274.
Gintis, Herbert, Samuel Bowles, Robert Boyd, and Ermst Fehr. “Explaining Altruistic Behavior in Humans.” Evolution and Human Behavior 24 (2003): 153-172. Web. 5 Feb. 2012
Before Breakfast is a short gloomy play by Eugene O'Neill. Eugene O'Neill was born in 1888 in New York City. He is the only American dramatist to ever win the Nobel Prize for literature. Before Breakfast is set in the Greenwich Village section of New York City, in a small one room flat on Christopher Street. The flat consists of a kitchen and dinning area. There are only two characters in this drama. Mrs. Roland who is the only speaking character and her husband Alfred. Alfred's hand is seen once in the play, but not much else. This is symbolic of an absentee husband or a non-existent marriage. Although, Alfred is not seen, he contributes a great deal to the conflict. With only Mrs. Rowland on stage, O'Neill allows the plot to revolve around her.
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.