To what extent does Anthony Burgess’ choice of narrative contribute to the presentation of
the protagonist in ‘A Clockwork Orange’?
Consider this statement using ideas from the Critical anthology to inform your argument.
‘Unreliable narrators are invariably invented characters who are part of the stories they tell’
according to D.Lodge’s view in ‘The Art of Fiction’. To a certain extent, the narrator in ‘A
Clockwork Orange’ fits this definition as everything we are told is delivered from Alex, the
protagonist’s, point of view which is not always the most reliable source because, as the
narrator, Alex can choose what he wishes the reader to know. Although it should be
considered that even though Alex is the unreliable narrator he is, as stated by D. Lodge, only
‘an invented character…who is part of the stories they tell’ and ‘even a character- narrator
cannot be a hundred per cent unreliable’. It could be considered that Alex’s real purpose is to
express Burgess’ personal, social and political views which were based on the government of
the 1960s.
Burgess’ intentions were to voice his strong, negative opinions towards the Russian
government of the late 1960s. In fact, Burgess expresses his distaste for not only the Russian
government but also elements of both the English and American societies through his
dystopian narrative by integrating the traits he disliked into the novel. This means that the
version of events is entirely what Burgess would have wanted. However, it should be
considered that the reader only receives Alex’s version of events, which could be exaggerated
as his character is proud of the crimes he has committed, ‘It is as human to be totally good as
it is to be totally evil’ right up until the point in the novel when he states that he is ‘only sixteen
and done it all’. The unreliable narrative of the novel calls into question the reader’s morals
due to the sympathy the reader begins to feel for Alex once he is subjected to the ‘Ludovico
Technique’. Alex is, as Lodge states, able to ‘self-justify’ his crimes to the reader. Therefore,
the reader knows that Alex is in the wrong and we are able to consider the criminal’s mind
and understand partly why he commits these crimes. However, the narrative style also allows
the reader to understand how ‘un-sorry’ Alex is and how criminals of the time behaved.
C. Brooker states that ‘it is likely that the story will have a hero or heroine’. In this case’ A
Clockwork Orange’ has neither. The protagonist of the story is neither hero nor villain as he is
treated equally as bad by people who are supposed to be morally correct as shown when Alex
is attacked by the police. Brooker also acknowledges that the reader will follow the ‘hero or
heroine out of their initial state into a series of adventures or experiences’. Although there is
no hero or heroine in ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the narrative does follow Alex through a series
of experiences. However, it could also be argued that the hero and villain, characters that are
most common in novels, are the same person in this book. Brooker refers to ‘Black and White’
characters known as ‘goodies and baddies’. However, this is not illustrated in ‘A Clockwork
Orange’ as the government, and the police are just as corrupt as Alex and his ‘droogs’, ‘There
was no trust anywhere in the world’.
Brooker also states that novels that have a hero or a heroine usually have a ‘reversal of
fortune’. This is evident to a certain extent in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ as Alexander and Alex
have reversed roles. Alexander, the original victim becomes the ‘baddie’ as he turns on Alex
and Alex then becomes the victim. Brooker also illustrates that most commonly novels allow
the audience to have a hero, implying that there must then be a villain to contrast the hero.
This is not represented in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ as there is no hero as many people who
should have been the heroes are corrupt, such as the police or Alexander. Whereas, Alex
becomes an unintentional hero for the reader as he breaks the conformity of the system after
undergoing the ‘Ludvico Technique’. Alex has his free will seized by force. Here, Burgess raises
the question of whether goodness by force is truly better than badness by choice, ‘When a
man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man’. He does as the title suggests become ‘A
Clockwork Orange’, a toy to be used by either God or the Devil but devoid of free will. Brooker
also believes that a real tragic story is one ‘in which the hero or heroine’s fortunes begin by
rising’, but eventually ‘turn down to disaster’. Ultimately, this fails to be demonstrated in ‘A
Clockwork Orange’ as there is no hero or heroine and the protagonist is the vilest character
yet the reader slowly begins to feel a sense of sympathy for him.
Brooker states that a good story must have a ‘climax, where conflict and uncertainty are at
their most extreme’. Brooker also refers to Aristotle who ‘first observed that a satisfactory
story must have ‘a beginning, a middle and an end’. This is evidenced throughout the novel
‘A Clockwork Orange’ as it is divided into three parts clearly showing a beginning, a middle
and an end. Lodge explores the structure of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones as the typical
structure for a novel. He states, ‘it has 198 chapters, divided into eighteen books, the first six
of which are set in the country, the next six on the road, and the final six in London.’ A similar
structure is replicated in ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The novel is divided into 21 chapters which
represents the protagonist’s age of 21 and his coming of age. The narrative of the novel is also
sectioned into three main parts which represent Alex’s three stages of growing up: childhood;
teenage years; and adulthood.
Narrative endings, according to Lodge, should most of the time provide the readers with a
‘happy one’. This is surreptitiously evident in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ as the reader goes on a
journey with Alex and becomes worryingly sympathetic for him. Through the ‘Ludvico
treatment’, we witness a change in Alex’s behaviour and right at the end he is converted back
to his old ways which, at this point, feels as close to a happy ending as the novel could get.
The ‘happy ending’ of this novel is, in comparison to others, a paradox. This is because,
although what started out as wrong initially, ended up being the best way for Alex to be
because society is just as corrupt as Alex. It could even be considered that as Brooker
references, ‘Finally, we see that the impetus of the story is carrying’ Alex ‘towards some kind
of resolution’, ‘My son, my son. When I had my son I would explain all that to him when he
was starry enough to like understand. But I knew that he would not understand’. Burgess uses
his protagonist’s enlightenment to illustrate a key point that it is through trial and error that
maturity is reached. Lodge, also, depicts ‘When does the beginning of a novel end, is another
difficult question’. This is not widely seen in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ as the novel’s three parts
of the narrative structure all begin with ‘What’s it going to ne then, ey?’. This introductory
rhetorical question, however, does as the narrative critic Lodge states ‘draw us in’.
Lodge illuminates that setting has a part to play in novels. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is set in a
small village. Because of the crime rate, it is juxtaposed to most novels where crime of this
seriousness would typically take place in a large city. The setting of the novel also provides
connotations of it being set in the future. Although, this is not represented by the
surroundings as the houses and village are typical of what we would see in modern society.
The torture exercised on Alex reverts to a time when torturing was overlooked and used by
the government. It could be considered that Burgess uses the political setting, and its
influence on his protagonist, to again emphasise his anger at the state regulated, repressive
Russian government and its Nomenklatura which was a list of hierarchy and corruption.
To conclude, Burgess’ narrative style allows the reader to share in his protagonist’s journey
of conflict through, as Lodge states, the ‘framework of girders’ that is the 21 chapters as he
battles what could be considered the novel’s and Burgess’ main antagonist which in this case
is the government in general and not just the government of the Soviet Union. Burgess
believed that regardless of our flaws, it is vital that we possess our free will. Consequently,
Burgess had a tendency towards anarchy and he vents this powerfully through his narrative
portrayal of Alex, the protagonist.