Andrew DeMarco
Andrea Silva
English 3010
September 25, 2009
A Clockwork Orange
In the book “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess a young man finds himself
clinging to life after a series of events leave him with no friends, family, or a place to stay.
Throughout the book, Alex a fifteen-year-old boy enjoys violence, rape and classical music or
more specific Beethoven. Pauline Kael describes the book as it being “the work of a strict and
exacting German professor who set out to make a porno-violent sci-fi Comedy.” The book,
written in 1962, was later transformed into a screenplay in 1971 by Stanley Kubrick. Although
argued by many that the book delivered by Burgess is on the topic of freedom and free choice I
agree but also think otherwise. I believe that Burgess was trying to imply the fact that
teenagers, kids or adolescents are becoming more and more violent while obeying less and less.
With this increasing violence among youth we see a major social problem in society. One critic
explains that “As I write this in 1999, the extremities of A Clockwork Orange have not come to pass, but
society is slowly moving down the slippery slope that the movie cautions against” (Berardinelli). We
see many examples of this teen violence and destructive behaviour throughout the book and
movie. It calls our attention to this topic very early on with the violence and rape scenes and
the fact that the main character, Alex, who is also the protagonist doesn’t seem to be bothered
by his actions nor feel any remorse. Kubrick approaches the theme of destructive and troubled
youth through the use of dialogue, character actions and scene selections.
Burgess writes the book A Clockwork Orange as a futuristic novel and includes a madeup language that he develops himself. He is trying to foreshadow what he thinks will happen in
the future if something isn’t done to stop the destructive youth. Kubrick models the book in
every aspect of character, language, and scenes. James Berardinelli explains that “ the film's
language, kept intact from the 1962 novel upon which it is based, is a mixture of common expressions,
Shakespearean English, and slang.”
Kubrick calls our attention to Alex’s persuasive yet psychopathic personality and actions
by showing us how easy he can manipulate the others and his obsession with destruction. This
is seen throughout the first half of the film when Alex leads his gang, also known as the
“droogs”, to murder, rape and steal. Alex, being the more intelligent one of the droogs, is
always the one that talks first which proves how he is the leader. As seen in the movie, he
directs the gang on who does what, such as who is to hold down the man while they beat the
living joy out of him.
Alex begins to lose the reigns for a bit when the gang decides to relieve him of his
leadership. Soon thereafter Alex knows just what he must do to regain the position he once
held. He does only what he thinks he must to restore order. While walking to the local
brewery Alex unexpectedly begins fighting with his droogs and by cutting the hand of the
strongest one he then proves that he is the leader again. This is where the viewer begins to get
a more in depth view of Alex’s character as an adolescent. The viewer begins to reason that
fighting is not the way to regain leadership but because he is just a teenager he doesn’t
understand the difference. I believe that Burgess creates this character to examine the fact
that youth like this today are beginning to be more common in society. Burgess brings
attention to the idea in a novel, and later in a movie by Kubrick, is one way to attack the issue
at hand. Another example of the leadership that Alex flaunts is when they try to break into
another women’s house. He says “Right, Return to the door. Me stand on Dim’s pletchoes.
Open that window and me enter, droogies. Then to shut up that old ptitsa and open up for all.
No trouble. For I was like showing who was leader and the chelloveck with the ideas.” We see
Alex flaunting the fact that he is the leader of this troubled group that invokes fright and
disturbance among the town. Not only do we see that he is proud of this leadership but he
strives to be the boss to prove that he is the smartest of them all.
“What’s it going to be then, eh?” is the question that Alex seems to ask over and over
again throughout the novel. The quote ties back to the re-occurring theme of free will.
Ironically, it seems like he is questioning his droogs on what they want to do but it is in fact the
opposite. Instead of a question, it is an ‘are you with me or not’; almost as if they have no
other choice.
Burgess creates the characters, and essentially the book, with a certain dialogue that
reinforces his idea of youth being destructive. We get first glance at Alex’s somewhat
psychopathic personality when the first man they assault starts bleeding, “...then, then out
comes the blood, my brothers, real beautiful” (Burgess 1962). This is where we see Burgess,
and then Kubrick, depicting Alex’s character as one in which we cannot, or hope to not, relate
to. Viewers hardly reason with Alex’s character throughout his tirade of harsh actions but when
he says this we begin to associate a type of mental disorder along with his character. For no
person in their right mind could enjoy seeing another bleeding so he must have something
wrong with him.
Through Alex’s love for classical music, or Beethoven, we see the irony of his situation.
While we usually associate this type of music with older “more respectable upper-class folk”, he
uses this music to motivate his aggression (Ager). We, as viewers, once again begin to reason
with the character involved because he doesn’t see it this way. This leads us to believe that he
is simply too young or has a mental problem. We also see a softer side in Alex’s character for a
brief moment while he enjoys this type music. This is only a brief moment because then the
viewer realizes that Alex is associating the type of beautiful music with the violence he claims to
be beautiful. “To Alex, the delight he finds in classical music is closely related to the ecstasy he
feels during acts of violence” (Sparknotes).
Kubrick’s initiative to incorporate the scenes of violence in the film not only makes us
aware of the aggressive behaviours of Alex and the gang but allows us to reason and form
judgement that what they are doing is wrong. We see many examples of this in the first half of
the movie. For example, Alex and his droogs rob a man and rape his wife in their own home.
While this is a brutal act of terror, during the whole ideal Alex is singing the lyrics to the song
“singing in the rain” by Arthur Freed. Showing no remorse, laughing and singing during the
rape leads the viewer to believe he is a definite psychopath. While this is certainly not
classified ‘normal’ behaviour we get our first impression of Alex at the beginning of the movie
when the droogs first harass and embarrass the old drunk hobo on the street. He asks them for
any change and they proceed by beating him relentlessly. Alex and his gang show no mercy and
remorse for the things they do to the town but we have yet to see any murders being
committed.
One of the most important scenes in the movie incorporates violence. The scene that
Alex climbs into the window of the old cat lady’s house is one that the movie is based upon. Up
until this point all the acts of violence and destruction have come from Alex and his droogs
together but this scene is where we see the full nature of Alex’s character alone. This is where
Alex steps over the line trying to prove his leadership. He beats the woman to death with a big
statue of a penis proving that he can do acts of violence by himself and that he doesn’t need his
droogs to help him.
Through the use of dialogue, violent scenes, and character actions, Anthony Burgess
reiterates the fact that youth crime is becoming a social problem. He creates a one on one
conflict between the main character, Alex, and the viewer. Because Alex is a young boy we
assume he doesn’t realize the magnitude of his actions but we are subconsciously asked to
reason with him because of his age. This reasoning seems to get harder while not only Alex’s
character becomes more vicious but when the whole gang, the droogs, become more
dangerous. Alex strives to be the leader of his gang to not only have the rep that scares the
other kids around town but to prove he is the smartest of the droogs. Kubrick depicts the
youth in the movie as destructive, conniving, and vicious to get the point across that this will
become a social problem in the future if something isn’t done.
Works Cited
Ager, Rob. "A CLOCKWORK ORANGE analysis by Rob Ager." Collative Learning - Rob
Ager. 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2009.
<http://collativelearning.com/a%20clockwork%20orange%20review.html>.
Berardinelli, James. "Review: A Clockwork Orange." Reelviews Movie Reviews. 1999. Web. 23
Oct. 2009. <http://www.reelviews.net/movies/c/clockwork.html>.
Kael, Pauline. "The Kubrick Site: Pauline Kael on 'A Clockwork Orange'" Visual-memory.co.uk.
1972. Web. 23 Oct. 2009. <http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0051.html>.
"SparkNotes: A Clockwork Orange: Analysis of Major Characters." SparkNotes: Today's Most
Popular Study Guides. Web. 23 Oct. 2009.
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/clockworkorange/canalysis.html>.