Free Will In A Clockwork Orange, By Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess once said that “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.” In his dystopian novella, Burgess discusses the topic of free will and reinforces the notion of moral choice and having the freedom to choose either good or evil. Alex starts off inherently evil, committing horrendous acts of terror, only to reveal change in the final chapter of the novel when he abandons the status quo and begins searching for a new life, one with a wife and a son of his own. Alex’s personal transformation results in a newfound freedom, which is attributed to the idea that goodness is genuine only when it is chosen, and

Burgess critiques the apparent lack of freedom in the totalitarian state, illustrating how the government oppresses its citizens by forced labor, police brutality, and propaganda. The government believes that the stability of the state trumps the happiness of its citizens and comprises moral choice in the name of stability. Alex falls victim in its quest to create a peaceful state. Ironically, in efforts to curtail street violence and rehabilitate its citizens, the doctors and state officials try to “redeem” Alex by administering Ludovico’s Technique, an unethical method of conditioning that leaves its subjects unable to choose between good and evil. Ludovico’s Technique can be seen as a micro-version of statewide run propaganda to control the minds of its citizens. In this instance, media is used effectively to cause Alex to become helplessly good. By stripping away Alex’s predisposition to do evil, Alex is left an empty shell of his former self, inhuman and mechanical. “A man who cannot choose ceases to be a man” (Burgess 156). The question is raised, “Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?” (Burgess 95). 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