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B. Reflective Letter
September 5th, 2012
Melanie Babi
AP Literature
Dear Ms. Thomassie,
I am writing to talk to you about my opinions of my first novel selection, which was A
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Burgess’ novel follows the life of a fifteen year old boy
who is akin with violence and robbery among many other horrible acts. It delves deep into the
main character’s mind and reads through the eyes of a psychologically unstable boy. Before even
beginning to read the novel, I felt as though the subject matter at hand would be extremely
complex and disturbing to read and comprehend. As I perused through the pages of the book, my
suspicions were proven correct. A Clockwork Orange pushes the reader to contemplate serious
life queries that deal with morality and justice along with its protagonist.
Excited as I was to read a novel that was so different and interesting, Burgess’ story had
many ups and downs to it. One of the greatest strengths of the novel was the use of the fictional
‘nadsat’ language. With a story that deals with so much violence and dirtiness and with so many
disturbing situations, it is nice to be able to know what is going on without having to actually
read his thoughts in plain English. I am the type of person who gets easily bothered when reading
about uncomfortable topics and I can quickly lose sight of a book as I worry over its choice of
wording. In A Clockwork Orange, one gets used to Alex’s way of speaking enough so that when
he talks about horrific things, the meaning is understood without the use of foul language.
Although some might find the story being in a different language a weakness, I believe getting
used to the language is a small price to pay for the sense of comfort, not to mention humor,
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which it brings. Still, I feel as if the flaws of the novel outweigh the strengths. The story is told in
first person point of view, which normally would not be a problem except that in this particular
book, the protagonist is mentally unstable. This causes the reader to believe that Alex is a
seriously unreliable narrator and in my mind causes doubt about what is true and untrue. In
addition, I believe that the controversial last chapter is a great weakness to the story. In this
chapter Anthony Burgess basically explains that people have the ability to outgrow their
psychopathic tendencies. In my opinion that is untrue and I think the last chapter makes the story
seem flack and disrupts the flow and purpose of the novel.
When reading, I found that two of the main points of the story deal with the ability to
choose and the ability to be good. Throughout the story I feel as though Anthony Burgess is
asking his readers, “Can true goodness only come from the heart of a man who chooses to be
good or can goodness stem from a man who is forced to be good?” The importance of free will
and morale is a recurring theme that Burgess surrounds his story with. The entire novel is based
on Alex’s choices to be bad and subsequently the imposition of good upon him when his free
will is taken away. The story brushes over conversations with similar focal points and at one
time the prison charlie states that “Goodness comes from within” implying that real goodness is
something that has to be genuinely chosen (93). In this way Burgess provides an answer to a
question that he continually asks of his readers throughout the story. In his novel, Burgess also
stresses the fact the government is an evil institution. Through his characters he often shows the
sinfulness of the government and its officials, such as when F. Alexander states that no
government should rejoice about turning one of its citizens into a piece of clockwork “save on
that boasts of its repressiveness” (174). I feel compelled to fully grasp the idea behind the these
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two themes of free will and government evil because I believe that through them, Burgess
directly shines his own beliefs and feelings into his story.
As I read through the novel it was difficult for me to link myself to any of the characters,
especially Alex. The story is set in a futuristic time period and society that I cannot fully grasp.
Also, it is almost impossible to understand the mindset of such a corrupted individual as the
protagonist. However, there is one point in the story where I find that I completely agree with
Alex’s thoughts, which is when he is describing what he thinks childhood is like. He says being
young is like being a little wind-up toy that “ittties in a straight line and bangs straight into things
bang bang and it cannot help what it is doing” (211). I read and reread this particular section of
the book and found that it was the most accurate description of what it is like to be young. Even
though I am nothing like the protagonist, my thoughts on childhood are the same as his. I believe
that any person, despite their differences, can connect to him and wrap up their childhoods in
almost the exact same fashion. In this scene is one of the very few connections I am able to make
with Alex’s character and that is because, for a time, he is incredibly humane and normal
minded.
Ironically, the part that left the greatest impression on me was quite the opposite of this
section of the story as I felt no connection to it at all. The first time Alex listens to classical
music and explains his horrific daydream in detail, is burned into my memory. His words which
conveyed his tragic vision were so twisted, though he spoke them with an underlying tone of
grace. I was so intrigued to learn that he takes beautiful music and as he “slooshied, [his]
glazzies tight shut to shut in the bliss that was better than any synthemesc Bog or God, [he] knew
such lovely pictures” (38). From this scene I truly understand how warped and psychologically
unstable the protagonist is. He finds such happiness and fulfillment in the two aspects of life,
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music and violence. His words show his deepest and most honest feelings and I think this part of
the story clearly wraps up what kind of person Alex is, which is one in a terribly psychotic state
of mind.
Though I imagined the novel to be a puzzling read, I never thought that it would be such
a challenge intellectually and morally. This novel pushes me to think about circumstances I
usually do not think about, and puts me in the shoes of a psychopath. Before reading A
Clockwork Orange, never did I believe that I would be able to understand a killer or sympathize
with a rapist but the novel made me do just that.
Sincerely,
Melanie Babi