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A Clockwork Orange

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This article describes the novel by Anthony Burgess. For other uses of the term 'Clockwork Orange', see 'Clockwork Orange (disambiguation)'. For the Stanley Kubrick film, see A Clockwork Orange (film)
A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess, published in 1962 and later the basis for the 1971 film by Stanley Kubrick.

It is one of Burgess's 'terminal novels', written to provide posthumous income for his wife after Burgess was allegedly diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

Contents

Plot introduction

Explanation of the novel's title

Burgess wrote that the title was a reference to an alleged old Cockney expression 'as queer as a clockwork orange'. ¹ Due to his time serving in the British Colonial Office in Malaya, Burgess thought that the phrase could be used punningly to refer to a mechanically responsive (clockwork) human (orang, Malay for 'person'). The Italian title, Un'Arancia Ad Orologeria, was interpreted to refer to a grenade. Burgess wrote in his later introduction, A Clockwork Orange Resucked, that a creature who can only perform good or evil is 'a clockwork orange—meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice, but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil'. As the colour orange can be a symbol for British protestantism, the title may be making a specific statement about British Christians or British Christianity.

In his essay "Clockwork Oranges"², Burgess asserts that 'this title would be appropriate for a story about the application of Pavlovian, or mechanical, laws to an organism which, like a fruit, was capable of colour and sweetness'. This title alludes to the protagonist's negatively conditioned responses to feelings of evil which prevent the exercise of his free will.

Plot summary

Alex's world

Set in the near future, the book centers around the life of the fifteen-year-old protagonist Alex who, along with his gang, roams the streets at night, committing crimes purely for enjoyment. The crimes described in the book increase in severity from assault, to robbery, to arson, to a fight with rival gang, to a break-in at the house of F.D. Alexander, where they gang rape his wife. The gang return to a bar where Alex hits one of his gang members, Dim, as punishment for Dim's rude behaviour towards a woman who was singing a bit of opera (classical music being Alex's other passion, apart from violence). This sparks off a tense moment between the two gang members, setting the stage for a confrontation.

The next day, after fighting Dim and George to re-establish his control of the gang, Alex agrees on George's suggestion to rob a house in a rich part of town. Alex tries to persuade the woman living in the house to open the door. The woman refuses and calls the police as a precaution. He gains access to the house through a window, but is confronted by the defiant woman, who defends herself with unexpected strength. As he reaches for a bust of Beethoven, she scratches his face, but he manages to knock her out with a silver statue of a ballarina which he had previously taken. He attempts to make an escape when he hears the police arrive, but his so-called friends betray him and Dim strikes him just as he exits the house, leaving him dazed until he is arrested. At the police station, we learn that the woman has died.

The Ludovico technique

Sentenced to fourteen years for murder, Alex gets a job as an assistant to the prison Chaplain. He feigns interest in religion, but amuses himself by reading the Bible for its lurid descriptions of "the old yehoodies tolchocking (beating) each other", and imagines himself taking part in "the nailing-in". Alex hears about an experimental rehabilitation programme called 'the Ludovico technique', which promises that the prisoner will be released upon completion of the two week treatment, and will not commit crimes afterwards. Partially by virtue of taking part in the fatal beating of a cellmate, Alex manages to become the subject in the first full-scale trial of the Ludovico technique. The technique itself is a form of aversion therapy, in which Alex is given a drug that induces extreme nausea while being forced to watch graphically violent films. At the end of the treatment, Alex is unable to carry out or even contemplate violent acts without crippling nausea.

After prison

Alex gets his release, but upon returning home he finds that he is not welcome: his personal belongings have been confiscated and his parents have taken a lodger. Dejected, Alex contemplates suicide and visits the public library in order to discover what sort of poison he might take to end his life. There he is spotted by one of his former victims, who, accompanied by his friends, exacts his revenge. Alex is unable to strike back and the police are alerted. The police arrive, but they turn out to be his old cohort Dim, as well as Billy Boy, the former leader of a rival gang. They take Alex, beat him up, and dump him by the side of a road out in the country.

Alex stumbles to the nearest house for help, which turns out to be that of F.D. Alexander, whose wife Alex had raped and beaten earlier in the book. At first Alex is not recognized as he had always worn a mask. The reader discovers that F.D. Alexander's wife has died from her injuries. F.D. Alexander recognizes Alex from the newspaper reports surrounding the Ludovico technique, as well as some comments Alex makes; he alerts some friends of his who are interested in proving that such government-sanctioned conditioning should not be supported. Seeking a reaction that will validate their opinions, they lock Alex in a room and play the fictitious "Symphony Number Three Of The Danish Veck Otto Skadelig" at full volume. The piece is loud, violent, and emotional, and as such it produces the same nauseating effects on him as did the films he was forced to watch during his rehabilitation. Unable to stand the pain, Alex throws himself out of the window to try to kill himself. He survives the fall with broken bones and wakes up in hospital, informed that his tormentors have been arrested and the Ludovico treatment reversed. This is the point at which the American edition of the book ended, implying that Alex would return to his ways of violent delinquency.

The actual final chapter begins identically to the first — Alex has formed a new gang and reverted to his previous criminality. On this particular night, however, he decides not to join them and goes for a walk on his own instead. He confesses that lately he has been finding the whole lifestyle tiresome, and has even (of all things) begun experiencing latent parenting urges. In a café, he bumps into one of his old gang members, Pete. To Alex's astonishment, Pete is now married and has become a respectable member of society. After conversing with Pete and his wife, Alex has an epiphany, renouncing violence on the one hand, but on the other concluding that his behaviour was an unavoidable part of youth, and that if he had a son, he would not be able to stop him from doing what he himself did.

Spoilers end here.

Differences in the American Publication

Although the book is divided into three parts, each containing seven chapters (21 being a symbolic reference to the British age of majority at the time the book was written), the 21st chapter was omitted from the versions published in the US until recently. The film adaptation, which was directed by Stanley Kubrick, follows the American version of the book, ending prior to the events of the 21st chapter. Kubrick claimed that he had not read the original version until he had virtually finished the screenplay, but that he certainly never gave any serious consideration to using it.

Literary significance and criticism

(Analysis) The book, narrated by Alex, contains many words in a slang dialect which Burgess invented for the book, called Nadsat. It is a mix of modified Russian words, Cockney rhyming slang and words invented by Burgess himself. It serves two functions: first, Burgess, while wanting to provide his young characters with their own register, did not want to use contemporary slang, fearing that this would 'date' the book too much. Second, the novel graphically describes horrific scenes of violence, which would be shocking even by today's standards, so nadsat is used as a 'linguistic veil' to distance the reader from the action on the page.

Allusions/references from other works

Both the story and individual elements have had a strong influence on popular culture, in general and popular music in particular.

Awards and nominations

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Trivia

Release details

See also

Sources, references, external links, quotations

 

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