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Recommended: An Essay on Free Will
Mankind has a power to choice of his own. God has gifted mankind to control the earth. Free will is a term which means the capability to make choice how to act freely which is not controlled by fate or god. However, free will does not mean to abuse someone for own satisfaction. The main character of “Clockwork Orange” Alex de large was symbol of free will in a society that is so dominated by violation. At one point or another a person has experienced the appeal of violence. Violence has its ways to make people want more, similar to Alex, who robs, rapes, and beating up poor people and that was part of his amusement. An unguided and uncontrolled teenager who also was a violated gang leader, wanted to rule the street and the area where he
live. Leader of small gang who spends his evening despoiling and wreaking havoc on the town until the gang mutinies and “Your Humble Narrator” as Alex refers to himself, is caught by the police. Alex and his Droogs (followers) experience violence on a nightly basis. Alex was described as a criminal guilt of violence, rape and theft. A Clockwork Orange highlights the question of whether people are destined to their fate, or whether free will and external circumstances can influence people's life outcomes. Alex believes that humans are born evil and need cultivation to avoid evil. In contrast to this, Alex fights vehemently against the notion that his freedom to choose should be compromised at all, as free will is what makes him human.
A Clockwork Orange, a novel written by Anthony Burgess in the 1960’s takes place in dystopian future in London, England. The novel is about a fifteen year old nadsat (teenager) named Alex who along with his droogs (friends) commit violent acts of crime and opts to be bad over good. In time, Alex finds himself to be in an experiment by the government, making him unable to choose between good and evil, thus losing his ability of free will, and being a mere clockwork orange. A “clockwork orange” is a metaphor for Alex being controlled by the government, which makes him artificial because he is unable to make the decision of good verses evil for himself and is a subject to what others believe is right. In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess utilizes contrast, symbolism, and the first person narrative point of view to illustrate and enhance the theme of free will, because a person who lack’s the ability to choose between good and evil, is not really a human being. Therefore, for the duration of Part One, Alex possesses the ability of free will yet decides to be evil by committing violent ...
When the play begins, Romeo chooses to crash the ball. Even before the Capulet ball, Romeo predicts his “untimely death"(1.4,117). Fate did not make him go to the Capulet ball, he decided to go on his own, even though his “mind misgives some consequences”(1.4, 114). Another example of how free will comes to play is when Romeo finds out later on that Juliet his true love is his enemy. A "fear"(1.5.120), is placed in him. Nonetheless, he still continues to pursue the relationship even though he knows it will only end in trouble.
A person cannot be considered human if their thoughts are controlled by someone else. In Brave New World, children are conditioned to believe what the world state wants them to believe. A technological advancement, known as hypnopedia, can be used for moral teaching. During a child’s sleep, an incessant voice tells the child to follow behaviors that are beneficial to society. The hypnopedia, for example, can tell the world state motto, “Community, Identity, Stability” (Huxley 1). In Brave New World, a person no longer has free will because they are implanted with ideas on how to live. In Do androids Dream of Electri...
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.
Free will is a right given to us when we are born as human beings. However, depending on different circumstances that right can be easily taken away based on where you live, or the actions that one can do to them. In A Clockwork Orange, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the characters throughout both novels and films have controlled free will because of different circumstances.
Fate vs Free Will has always been one of the most controversial topics from early history, and for no surprise because everyone is fascinated about their future. Many people believe that life is predetermined and anything you do won’t transmute your future. Others believe that you are sanctioned to mold your own destiny and optate your own path. Your mind, for example, has total free will up to the point where you believe that everything you think is controlled by faith. Then you wouldn’t have a free thought because all that you will think was always going to be thought, and thus making faith decide you. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain and that is that we’ll never know the future because it is beyond our ken.
Have you ever thought about whether or not people have a destiny in life, or about if they have a certain fate that could change everything they’ve ever known or dreamed of? This question usually sparks human interest. Psychologically, we all have a desire to know about ourselves and what lies before us. Three works that create the theme of fate and free will is Macbeth, Hercules, and Oedipus The King.
Violence in all of its manifestations is based on an exercise of power. It represents a means to gain power, to maintain power, or as a response to a threat to one's power. As long as a society maintains the legitimacy of social hierarchies, of the right of some people to have power over others, there will be violence. One can either seek to diffuse the concentration of power or to control violence. By its very character, the attempt to control violence is self-defeating. The control will itself become violent.
Throughout time people have tried to prove and disprove God, all part of free will. Free will allows people to believe based on faith but can allow people to demand proof. It also allows people to decide who they are, their identity. It’s what gives people the opportunity to build relationships with people. Some relationships can cause problems with God including going against what He tells people not to do, and betraying family. Lastly, it shapes civilization to one day become a great city or it fall and be destroyed. God gave people the free will to worship Him freely instead of being forced, but being able to choose a path to follow can lead to destruction.
As teenagers deviate from the constraining grasp of their parents, they begin to establish their own identity through decisions; however, their development of self-identification is frequently hindered by manipulation of societal institutions such as: justice system, religion, and media. Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, establishes the idea of freewill and how it is suppressed when Alex, the main protagonist, undergoes the manipulative Ludovico's technique, religious lectures, and social norms influenced by media- used to instill pain when Alex's desires violence/music and finding salvation, which is similar to the treatment of criminals in our society; ultimately utilized to mitigate crime, but also suppresses freewill through repercussions, fear, police officials, indelible ads, and the law. Therefore, American citizens are not privileged with the power of choice because the hindering paradox that exists in society: possessing the ability to consciously establish identity is entwined with manipulation, subliminally.
As seen in the Novel, most acts of anger and violence are down to failed dreams and hope, with the one or two exceptions and that they are both ways of letting how you feel known and a way to make you feel better.
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.
Gilchrist, Sophie. Free Will In A Clockwork Orange. Tech. no. HIST - 303. N.p., 30 May 2012. Web. .
Antigone is a tragedy written by Sophocles with a general theme of fate versus free will. Within the play, there is a character named Creon who is the king of Thebes. Creon is Antigone’s uncle, and makes the decision to not allow the burial of Antigone’s brother, Polyneicês. This outrages Antigone, the female protagonist, and causes her to decide to bury Polyneicês herself. Antigone is then left to face her future that may be controlled by fate or free will. The concept of fate versus free will is contrasted throughout the play and is demonstrated through the characters of Antigone and Creon. Fate is essentially the will of the gods, and Antigone understands this concept. Although Antigone and Creon may believe they have acted on their own
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.