A Clockwork Orange Term Papers

John Anthony Burgess Wilson is most commonly known for this book, A Clockwork Orange, but he also wrote many other books. Burgess grew up during the Great Depression and was made fun of because he was rather well off compared to his classmates and was one of few who could read. Burgess had originally hoped to study music, but was turned down from his first choice of college. Burgess ended up studying English language between 1937 and 1940. Burgess was in the British Army and was eventually moved to the Army Educational Corps. After he finished his service, he went on to continue teaching in England and other countries. Before A Clockwork Orange, Burgess wrote the trilogy The Long Day Wanes. A Clockwork Orange is set in the near distant …show more content…
The man does not recognize Alex, and asks Alex what brought him here. Alex tells him about the accidental killing of the cat lady and about the Ludovico Technique, leaving out his other crimes. The man takes pity on Alex and invites his friends over, who have been working on proving how unjust the Ludovico Technique is. The man begins to recognize Alex as the boy who killed his wife as he here Alex hum “Singing in the Rain”, the same song he Alex was humming the night of his wife’s murder. That night, Alex begins to here classical music and is greatly pained by it, as classical music was playing during his conditioning through the Ludovico Technique. He attempts suicide by jumping out the window, but survives. While he is in the hospital, the doctors fiddle with his brain and are able to reverse the effects of the Ludovico Technique. The next chapter had, for many years been left out of American copies and greatly changes the meaning of the book. One year later, Alex is now eighteen and is rapidly growing bored with his violent lifestyle and is taking far less pleasure in destroying and causing pain. He goes back …show more content…
He was a witty and multi-dimensional character, while he was a ruthless murderer in the beginning, you can’t help but pity him and everything he goes through. Also, while Alex’s change in the end of the book was sudden and unexpected, it was still somehow believable. I also felt as though Burgess truly understood how a person changes as they grow up. He didn’t try to write of Alex’s violent tendencies to ignorance, but rather to how as teens, people have an odd need to take control and have a love of destruction rather than creation, a trait that is usually grown out of. I felt as though Burgess understood growing