A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange, a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, is a dramatic and eccentric tale of self-discovery, and coming to the understanding of the meaning of life. One of the largest themes presented within the novel, is the necessity of having some kind of commitment in life. According to the narrator, psychopathic delinquent Alex, the majority of the adults within Britain during the events of the novel are almost completely assumed by apathy. They constantly are spoon-fed all of the information and necessities they required to live, never asking or wondering more than what they were told by the oppressive government. These same adults are seemingly more interested in their world-cast than in thinking for themselves. This is seen by Alex as completely …show more content…
They take great pride, and commitment in their work, constant senseless violence without any modicum of remorse for the victims they claimed. However, within these acts of violence, Alex and his droogies would find some meaning to their seemingly drab childhoods, and in a twisted way were realising their goals at a young age, rather than using their childhood to prepare for a life of torpidity like the adults. Another source of meaning for Alex specifically, was music, most notably Ludwig Van Beethoven. Indeed any forms of art provided meaning to Alex, as it was some sort of separation for the incredible oppression suffered by children during their formative years within Alex’s society. Essentially, for Alex, the ultimate meaning to his life is the ability to chose, and his seemingly inalienable free will. Throughout his younger years, he constantly exercises his ability to choose, generally in a destructive manner. Burgess asserts that humanity, no matter the cost, must allow individuals to assert their own free will and make their own choices. Throughout the tale however, another theme arises, the theme of the oppression to free will commonly seen from …show more content…
The government however only acts as a catalyst for this change, and not only robs its citizens of the ability to think freely, but the meaning of their lives. These suggestions by Burgess, those of apathy and the ability of government to rob its citizens free will, and therefore the meaning of their lives, are the reason that Alex, a generally despicable; rapist, murderer. thug, and hooligan, is seen as the protagonist of the tale. However, due to his indiscriminate exorcism of his free will, Alex is arrested at the end of the first third of the tale. This essentially robs of him of his free will, but not of his thought, he is still considered by Burgess to be alive, and human. It is not until Alex is subjected to the Ludovico treatment when Burgess implies him to be unliving, not dead however not truly alive either, like a thing. The Ludovico treatment, an experimental reclamation technique used by the government to suppress the free will of convicted prisoners, involving subjecting them to horrific imagery of the violent and callous nature of mankind, effectively robbing them of their ability to compartmentalize acts of violence within their