Assignment Week 13: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (5 points)

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A Clockwork Orange by Antony Burgess is the novel I decided to read for this week. I watched the movie years ago, however reading the book I now know why people did like it. I really loved this book due to the fact it was so weird. The book was more of an abstract and quirky way of envisioning the violence that can come from free will. This book transcended (abstracted) the expectations of literature by the particular writing style and the actions of the boys in the book.

The ideas that presented themselves in the book were interesting to say the least. First there is the inherent evil of the government in which talking about how the government is seeking to suppress the individual in favor to confine to the state. Another one I thought of was a quote from Alex himself, “Duality as the Ultimate Reality”. This statement shows how Alex sees society and the world, good versus evil, commitment versus neutrality, man versus machine, man versus government, youth versus maturity, and intellect versus intuition. These two themes play a big role to me from this book and the film. At first I didn’t get why they would be so blunt but abstract with it, however, as I continued to read I understood why. This is due to the fact that most of these problems are prevalent in our lives but they aren’t always staring us in the face like this book and film are.

Another thing that intrigues me is that Alex and his crew go to a Milkbar a lot. Normally with teens and or young adults in books and films take part in crimes you would think they would go to a pub for alcohol or a basement to secretly drink it. This Milkbar however shows the society of infantilization and subsequent helplessness of the State’s citizens. The milk also symbolizes uniformity among the teenagers who drink it. The fact that the milk is laced with drugs is ironic, showing that these youths are less innocent than adults. Thus this book transcends the expectations but if not reading carefully enough you can get lost in the words and not understand the message of said book.

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