A Clockwork Orange

Clockwork Orange

There have been many books published solely on philosophy, and many more than that solely written about human nature, but very infrequently will a book be published that weaves these fields together as well as A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. In this Book Burgess speculated on the fact “the significance of maturing by choice is to gain moral values and freedoms.” He achieved this task by pushing his angsty teenaged character, Alex, through situations that challenge the moral values of himself and his friends. In the novel, A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, Alex himself, must choose good over evil in order to gain moral values which will allow him to mature into a “man” in the latter of his two transformations.
Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester, England on February 25, 1917. When he was a child of one-year-old his mother and sister passed away due to the influenza epidemic. He continued living with his father who soon was remarried to the owner of a pub. Anthony’s father played piano at the pub and Anthony began composing his own music at the early age of fourteen In 1940 Burgess joined the army and was put in the medical corps. Two years later he married Llewela Isherwood Jones. Burgess, soon after his marriage, left the army, started writing and teaching English. In 1968 Llewela died and Burgess was remarried to Lilina Macellari. They left England in 1968 and
Werner 2 settled in Monaco, where Burgess remained a prolific writer through 1980. Burgess’ writing career was at its peak while Llewela was in the hospital. Durring this emotional time he was able to write such books as A Clockwork O...

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...erson of increasingly reputable morals. Now Alex wants to break away from the group and adopts more the philosophy that “Madness is rare in individuals—but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule” (Neitzsche 90).
In conclusion it is seen that Alex has effectively changed into a man and has become a morally sensitive individual. He, for himself has chosen good
Werner 7 over evil and needed no treatment to help him do so. It is realized that in being unable to choose, one is not at liberty, and free will is taken away. Also if one has no say whether good or evil is chosen, it is of no importance because such a decision could be made by a machine. Alex was able to make two evolutions. He evolved from a machine into a human, and the evolved from a human choosing evil, to a human choosing good.