A Clockwork Orange is one of the most controversial movies ever made.The movie is based around a thug named Alex, a teenager, who finds happiness in about any perverse action.Alex, who seems to find glory in rape, lust, and murder, tells the story from his point of view.
The movie examines the usual cliches of “individual freedom”.It seems as if Alex suffers from an attempt to exercise his own vitality within a social structure too severe to support it.The film is not only a social satire but also a “fairy tale of retribution” and a “psychological myth”,(Kagan) all constructed around the truth of human nature.
Each night Alex and his companions commit stylized but meaningless acts of violence including rape, robbery, and mugging.One such night they find themselves out at a house far off in the country.The overly modernistic house has a sign lit in the front that says “home”.The four boys slither to the front door where they act as if one of them is hurt.Once they are permitted to enter, Alex and his gang rape the woman and leave the old man there a cripple.After the horrific event, which Alex describes as “an evening of some small energy expenditure,” the boys end back up at the Milkbar for a nightcap.The Milkbar is a place where spiked or laced drinks, called milk-plus, are served.
The next morning Alex is confronted by his probation officer because his officer thinks that he was involved in the previous night’s wrongdoings.He keeps a calm demeanor throughout the whole thing and denies all charges.
That night Alex and his droogs go about their mischievous ways again.They attempt to enter an older woman’s house the same way they entered the previous night, the woman will not let them. So Alex finds his way inside and once inside he struggles with the woman, who has already called the cops, and ends up clubbing her with an enormous phallic sculpture, killing her.When he
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A Clockwork Orange
“A brilliant novel . . . a savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds.” —New York Times “Anthony Burgess has written what looks like a nasty little shocker, but is really that rare thing in English letters: a philosophical novel.” —TimeA terrifying tale about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom, A Clockwork Orange became an instant classic when it was published in 1962 and has remained so ever since. Anthony Burgess takes us on a journey to a nightmarish future where sociopathic criminals rule the night. Brilliantly told in harsh invented slang by the novel’s main character and merciless droog, fifteen-year-old Alex, this influential novel is now available in a student edition. The Norton Critical Edition of A Clockwork Orange is based on the first British edition and includes Burgess’s original final chapter. It is accompanied by Mark Rawlinson’s preface, explanatory annotations, and textual notes. A glossary of the Russian-origin terms that inspired Alex’s dialect is provided to illustrate the process by which Burgess arrived at the distinctive style of this novel. “Backgrounds and Contexts” presents a wealth of materials chosen by the editor to enrich the reader’s understanding of this unforgettable work, many of them by Burgess himself. Burgess’s views on writing A Clockwork Orange, its philosophical issues, and the debates over the British edition versus the American edition and the novel versus the film adaptation are all included. Related writings that speak to some of the novel’s central issues—youthful style, behavior modification, and art versus morality—are provided by Paul Rock and Stanley Cohen, B. F. Skinner, John R. Platt, Joost A. M. Meerloo, William Sargent, and George Steiner. “Criticism” is divided into two sections, one addressing the novel and the other Stanley Kubrick’s film version. Five major reviews of the novel are reprinted along with a wide range of scholarly commentary, including, among others, David Lodge on the American reader; Julie Carson on linguistic invention; Zinovy Zinik on Burgess and the Russian language; Geoffrey Sharpless on education, masculinity, and violence; Shirley Chew on circularity; Patrick Parrinder on dystopias; Robbie B. H. Goh on language and social control; and Steven M. Cahn on freedom. A thorough analysis of the film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange is provided in reviews by Vincent Canby, Pauline Kael, and Christopher Ricks; in Philip Strick and Penelope Houston’s interview with Stanley Kubrick; and in interpretive essays by Don Daniels, Alexander Walker, Philip French, Thomas Elsaesser, Tom Dewe Mathews, and Julian Petley. A Selected Bibliography is also included.