The ending of any novel is most important for some readers. Endings form a readers' final impression of what they have read, and can quite literally make or break the novel. Critics agree that the ending represents a large area of contention (Biswell, 199). Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, wrote the novel with the intentions of the book divided into three sections with twenty-one chapters, with twenty-one representing an age of adulthood at that particular time. However, the US Norton edition of A Clockwork Orange is written with a different ending, concluding with only twenty chapters instead of twenty-one, significantly changing the meaning of the novel entirely; basically omitting a happy ending for some booklovers.
Burgess’s New York publisher insisted on cutting out the twenty-first chapter because he believed that the chapter “was a sellout” and stated that Americans “were tougher than the British” and could face up to reality (Burgess, 168). Burgess’s publisher and editor omitted the positive final chapter from the American version so that the story would end on a darker note, with Alex going back to his violent, reckless ways. Burgess’s publisher insisted this ending would be more realistic and appealing to a …show more content…
Twenty-one, according to Burgess, was “the symbol of maturity”, and was when one “assumed adult responsibility” (Burgess, 166). Burgess also mentions his interest in arithmology, a field in which numbers are symbolically associated with words or phrases. Twenty-one chapters in that sense is entirely arithmological because it represents an age Burgess believes is of legal adulthood at which Alex approaches later in the chapter. Additionally, the division of the novel into three sections of twenty-one chapters provides a sense of consistency that is disrupted by the removal of the last
Burgess’s New York publisher insisted on cutting out the twenty-first chapter because he believed that the chapter “was a sellout” and stated that Americans “were tougher than the British” and could face up to reality (Burgess, 168). Burgess’s publisher and editor omitted the positive final chapter from the American version so that the story would end on a darker note, with Alex going back to his violent, reckless ways. Burgess’s publisher insisted this ending would be more realistic and appealing to a …show more content…
Twenty-one, according to Burgess, was “the symbol of maturity”, and was when one “assumed adult responsibility” (Burgess, 166). Burgess also mentions his interest in arithmology, a field in which numbers are symbolically associated with words or phrases. Twenty-one chapters in that sense is entirely arithmological because it represents an age Burgess believes is of legal adulthood at which Alex approaches later in the chapter. Additionally, the division of the novel into three sections of twenty-one chapters provides a sense of consistency that is disrupted by the removal of the last