Russian born American writer, Ayn Rand, once said, “Man is a being with free will; therefore each man is potentially good or evil, and it’s up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.” The meaning behind Rand’s words is that an individual has the power to choose between good or evil and it is that exact power which allows a human to live truly as a human. However, it is when that specific power, those choices, and the freedom to act on those choices are taken away when an individual is not genuinely considered a being. Without the power to choose, choices, and free will in one’s life, one, although breathing, is not in fact actually living. Free will is an extremely important part of human life because it is the very thing that makes one human, which allows one to live and lead a different life from the other countless individuals in the world. The subject of the power to choose between good and evil and that of free will can be perfectly displayed in Anthony Burgess’s dystopian, philosophical novel, A Clockwork Orange. Free will is a continuous theme throughout the novel and one can see that the subject is prevalent. In the novel A Clockwork Orange, through the three stages of his life, personality, and the environment around him, Alex, the main character, illustrates that an individual cannot entirely exist as a human being with the absence of free will and the power to choose throughout one’s life.
Throughout the first stage of Alex’s life, his choices between good and evil are very obvious as he chooses to be evil over good in every situation. One could consider this stage of a mechanical nature in which Alex just does what he wanted to do, he is reckless and does not think abo...
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...t is a gift to have a choice between the two. Alex still participated in acts of violence however he did not see them as appealing or as important as he did in the beginning of his life. Becoming normal, meaning balancing the good and evil in his life, allows Alex to have thoughts about settling down and starting a life of his own with a child whom he will teach about life. Alex’s journey can also teach one about the importance of choice in life and how to use it wisely. Without choice, humans would be nothing but beings walking the earth devoid of a conscious mind, thoughts, and a full life. Individuals would not be able to truly live without the freedom to choose as they would like and have free will which can determine their fate. A person’s fate should never be taken from them nor chosen for them. Choices are the most important thing a person can have.
In conclusion it is seen that Alex has effectively changed into a man and has become a morally sensitive individual. He, for himself has chosen good
Consequently, Andy’s soul withered further into hopelessness as each and every person who came to his rescue, turned their backs on him. Through a final desperate ambition, Andy broke free of the bonds that were pinning him down: “If it had not been for the jacket, he wouldn’t have been stabbed. The knife had not been plunged in hatred of Andy. The knife only hated the purple jacket. The jacket was a stupid, meaningless thing that was robbing him of his life. He lay struggling with the shiny wet jacket. Pain ripped fire across his body whenever he moved. But he squirmed and fought and twisted until one arm was free and the other. He rolled away from the jacket and layed quite still, breathing heavily, listening to the sound of his breathing and the sounds of rain and thinking: Rain is sweet, I’m Andy”. In these moments, Andy finally overcame his situation, only in a way not expected by most. Such depicted scenes are prime examples of human nature at it’s worst, as well as the horrors that lay within us. However, these events, although previously incomprehensible by his limited subconscious, led to a gradual enlightenment of the mind and heart. Furthermore, the experiences taught him
In the story, Alex conveys courage by risking his life when he escapes the crate onto the heavily guarded ship and looks to go and disarm a bomb, nicknamed the “Royal Blue”, that was intended to kill thousands of people. By the end of the story, Alex changed a great deal throughout this whole
In “The Fountainhead” Ayn Rand shows her own views on free will. She belligerently shows how the world has come to collectivism to live their lives. ““Fine.” Said Mrs. Keating, “Go to the Beaux-Arts. It’s a grand place. A whole ocean away from your home. Of course, if you go, Mr. Francon will take somebody else. People will talk about that. Everybody knows that Mr. Francon picks out the best boy from Stanton every year for his office. I wonder how it’ll look if some other boy gets the job? But I guess that doesn’t matter.”” (P.35). this quote shows collectivism by showing how “emotional” one can be about not being better than his/her peers around them. Ayn’s point of view on free will in this quote shown telling of how Peter Keating had a choice on whether to take Guy Francons job offer or go to the Beaux-Arts academy for architecture, even though his mother was pressuring him into tak...
If all of these events did not happen, Alex would still be a static character. Through all of his courage, he found what he was looking for. He dug deep and went to the extremes that were not normal of himself. All of his work lead to his dynamic
All Alex knew was to be violent due to the failure and lack of family structure, the school system and the law. The lack of these assertive institutions Alex couldn’t properly generate proper moral values and social norms. According to Mead he analyzed that a child gets some sort of understanding of how to act properly by how others act toward the child. Later on in the child’s development he/she learns and understands “the generalized other”, values and cultural rules (textbook). Alex was never pressured into going to school, there is one scene where his mother wakes him and tells him to get ready for school and Alex tells her “he doesn’t feel like going today” and that was the end of it. With Alex missing out on school he never really self-aware and knowledgeable. His family is absent also. Again with Alex telling his mother he doesn’t feel like going to school and his mother just lets it go shows the carelessness of his parents. Alex can pretty much do whatever he wants when he wants. With their lack of parenting he never truly gained proper values and morals and instead he created his own by the morals and values his “droogs” know. He had many run in’s with the police even before he was
As a teenager, I have come across recent discoveries of myself and the world, the thirst to gain more knowledge, new responsibilities, and orders from elders. It is the overwhelming combination of these things that occasionally hit me with the feeling of being enslaved, chained to the world, my home, and my family. These expectations and dictations are restrictions, but they do not represent true slavery. True slavery controls every aspect of a man; the dictator must enslave the man’s body and destroy his mind. This effort to completely subdue humanity is exemplified by the leaders and society of Ayn Rand’s Anthem. In this novel, the leaders try to suppress the actions, emotions, and thoughts of the people in an attempt to destroy both mind and body.
Ayn Rand's classic story of one man's desire to become an individual in a nameless society presents a compelling refutation of collectivism in all forms. The hero, labeled "Equality 7-2521" by the State, chooses to challenge conventional authority as he learns the joys of experimentation and discovery, the ecstasy of human love, the challenge and fairness of liberty, and the happiness of self-interest. Equality 7-2521 writes three unique phrases in his journal: 1. "My happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to an end. It is the end.", 2. "We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it.", 3. "The word 'We' . . . must never be placed first within man's soul.". These phrases will be discussed individually in the remainder of this essay.
"John (Anthony) Burgess Wilson." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.
The books Brave New World by Aldus Huxley and Anthem by Ayn Rand are both valuable twentieth-century contributions to literature. Both books explore the presence of natural law in man and propose a warning for what could happen when man's sense of right and wrong is taken from him. In this essay, I hope to show how these seemingly unrelated novels both expound upon a single, very profound, idea.
Timshel; meaning “thou mayest”, holds a significant role in East of Eden. It shows that anyone can desire to surmount vile in their hearts and create morality within them self. In the novel, Steinbeck portrays the significance of timshel through the introduction of free will, the internal conflict of Caleb, and the blessing of Adam.
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.
Free-will is a major part in the actions of this book. “The free will compels him to murder and rape, but also foster his esteem.” (LifeCharts). The opportunity to do as Alex wishes is what makes him to the crimes. It fuels him and in a way allows him to find himself. Alex is all about choices and he chooses to do the crime but also chooses to turn his life around. “Alex realizes that he benefits from living a normal life staying under the radar and it out-weighs the consequences of being a
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 this novel Alex shows his freedom of choice between good and evil, which is that, his superiority over the innocent and the weak. In the beginning of the novel he chooses to be evil, he shows us that by committing violence act like stealing, raping, and also murdering an innocent person which he got arrested for and put into prison for about 12 years. The amount violence he commits shows his abuse of power and his decisions toward evil. The violent acts that are described in this novel are very graphical and are intended to shock the reader but they also show that the suppression of others is wrong, because it is destructive to the natural rights of humans. Alex consistently chooses evil and violence to show his freedom of choice, ?Now I was ready for a bit of twenty-to-one . . . then I cracked this veck" pg 7. Alex beats, rapes, and robs the weak and ...