Folio One
A Clockwork Orange, directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. Depicts the life of Alex, a young sociopathic delinquent who lives a life of crime set in a dystopian future. Faced with betrayal by his co-conspirators Alex is sentenced for the accidental murder of one of his victims. Whilst in prison, Alex is selected as a guinea pig for the trial of a new drug that ‘cures’ users of their ultraviolence. Alex, after his release, is still haunted by his past and soon inherits a key role in the politics of his own country. Kubrick explores the theme of freedom through the characterisation of Alex throughout the film and uses various cinematic techniques to achieve this. The film depicts freedom in terms of Alex in three various stages. Before,
…show more content…
Alex’s previous life still manages to catch up to him, even after prison. His old gang friends, who are now police men, detain and drive him off where they torture him and leave him there to find his own way. Pathetic fallacy, in the form of rain and thunder as well as darkness, begin the next scene where Alex stumbles upon the house of the writer F. Alexander. This pathetic fallacy foreshadows the manipulation of Alex for the own political gain of the Frank, who disapproves of the current minister: “The common people will let it go. Oh yes, they’ll sell liberty for a quieter life. That is why they must be led, sir, driven, pushed!” F. Alexander then proceeds to question Alex about what happens because of the treatment. Using this information, he is able to set up a situation where he traps Alex in a room and forces him to attempt suicide, this is done by playing Alex Beethoven’s ninth symphony, which triggers the bodily response. Beethoven’s ninth symphony is both used as the score and a motif for the tragedy of his attempted suicide. When the public finds out about his attempted suicide because he can no longer listen to his beloved music there is an uproar. As Frank planned all along he uses this gain the support of the public in order to bring down the morally wrong Ludovico …show more content…
One where he is free do as he wishes with no losses, one where he is locked up inside prison walls and one where he can try to perform acts of ultraviolence but with repercussions of the Ludovico technique along with the manipulation of those around him. This is portrayal of freedom throughout the film was accomplished through Kubrick’s imaginative and creative use of cinematic techniques such as score, camera angles and
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
chosen to undergo a new “treatment” that the State has developed to “reform” criminals. After the State strips him of his choice to choose between good and evil, Alex can only do good now and even thinking of doing something bad makes him violently ill. Then, Alex is “rehabilitated” considered “rehabilitated”. Afterwards Alex is released where he encounters an “ex-droog” and one of his enemies, they beat him to a pulp and leave him out in the middle of nowhere. After coming to his senses, Alex makes his way to a house and in that house, right before Alex went to prison, h...
1. As I was reading the book Clockwork Orange, I felt like it deserved a 8 out of 10. I enjoyed the book because while I was reading it, I did not have such a clear image of all the rape, sex, and violence. Talking from personal experiences, I did not want to picture those images in my head. Finding out there was a movie of Clockwork Orange kind of scared me but also gave me excitement because I wanted to see how different the the book was from the movie. After viewing Clockwork Orange, I would rate it a 7 out of 10. I rated it a 7 out of 10 because the rape and violence was overused. In the beginning of the movie, there were non-stop sex and rape scenes. For example, when Alex and his goons fake their way into an emergency just so they could attack a older man and rape his wife, who later dies because of this accident. Toward the end of the movie, there was a lot of
Alex seemed to find the love he didn’t get from his parents in his friends. Alex and his friends did a lot of damage to others, but of course they did it as a group. They beat up an old man who asked for change, they fought another group of people, they broke into a house and beat up the old man who lived there, then beat up his wife, killing her, but only after they raped her.
When you act in a way you feel is right and unforced, there is an example of what true freedom is. When Alex is converted into acting only positively, he acts in a way that doesn’t make him feel sick. He is shown all sorts of appalling scenes when taking part in the experiments, which eventually cause him to react in disgust; especially when he hears the music that was being used. After completing Ludovico treatment he is left vulnerable and unable to act freely, locked in this mindset of only acting as a ‘good’
Anthony Burgess has been heralded as one of the greatest literary geniuses of the twentieth century. Although Burgess has over thirty works of published literature, his most famous is A Clockwork Orange. Burgess’s novel is a futuristic look at a Totalitarian government. The main character, Alex, is an "ultra-violent" thief who has no problem using force against innocent citizens to get what he wants. The beginning of the story takes us through a night in the life of Alex and his Droogs, and details their adventures that occupy their time throughout the night. At fifteen years old, Alex is set up by his Droogs—Pete, Dim, and Georgie—and is convicted of murder and sent to jail. At the Staja or state penitentiary, Alex becomes inmate number 6655321 and spends two years of a sentence of fourteen years there. Alex is then chosen by the government to undergo an experimental new "Ludovico’s Technique." In exchange for his freedom, Alex would partake in this experiment that was to cure him of all the evil inside of him and all that was bad. Alex is given injections and made to watch films of rape, violence, and war and the mixture of these images and the drugs cause him to associate feelings of panic and nausea with violence. He is released after two weeks of the treatment and after a few encounters with past victims finds himself at the home of a radical writer who is strongly opposed to the new treatment the government has subjected him to. Ironically, this writer was also a victim of Alex’s but does not recognize him. This writer believes that this method robs the recipient of freedom of choice and moral decision, therefore depriving him of being a human at all. These themes are played out and developed throughout the entire novel. Alex eventually tries to commit suicide and the State is forced to admit that the therapy was a mistake and they cure him again. The last chapter of the novel which was omitted from the American version and from Stanley Kubrick’s film shows Alex’s realization that he is growing up and out of his ultra-violent ways on his own. He realizes that he wants a wife and son of his own and that he must move up and on in the world.
And a Clockwork universe is comparing the universe as a mechanical clock, it’s a perfect contraption, but every aspect of it is science controlling it. So, I asked questions after each paragraph about Alex. With Alex being a deviant criminal in the beginning due to his environment which wasn’t his fault for being the way he was to being put through “treatment” that cured him to be a perfect citizen, he still wasn’t fully “cured”. Once Alex was put into the real world he became the perfect victim, and he was put through horrific acts just like he used to do to his victims and tried to commit suicide. With jumping out a window Alex’s new conditioning isn’t a thing anymore, he doesn’t get ill when subjected to violence and is able to listen to his favorite song by Beethoven without getting sick also.
In the first introduction of music, Alex describes how his parents have learned to “not knock on the wall with complaints… I had taught them. Now they would take sleep-pills” (33) when he plays music loudly, showing the control Alex has manifested over his own parents with music. Alex also plays the Ninth by Ludwin van while raping two girls, as they were forced to “submit to the strange and weird desires of Alexander the Large with, what with the Ninth, were… very demanding” (46). By inevitably connecting classical music to violence, Burgess shows that there is little distinction in importance between the two for Alex, and the two become physically linked after the government’s brainwashing. This suggests that you cannot take Alex’s flaws without simultaneously taking those same elements that make him human. The focus on classical music as a pivot of Alex’s humanity accentuates the sympathy felt for Alex as he is being brainwashed, as the previous poetic love for classical music is replaced with “pain and sickness” as Alex had “forgotten what he shouldn’t have forgotten” (139). Without attempting to condone Alex’s actions, Burgess stresses the notion that humanity is not meant to be erased or forcibly removed, even if it means having to come to terms with the flaws that every person
"John (Anthony) Burgess Wilson." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.
A Clockwork Orange follows a teenager by the name of Alex, who teams up with his hoodlum friends in the night hours to commit a little bit of the old ultra violence. After one of Alex's droogs challenges his leadership and loses, all of his friends turn on him, and our humble narrator is arrested and sent to prison for murder. In prison, Alex volunteers for a radical new treatment, which can cure him of his evilness, in exchange for a shortened sentence. Alex is released back into society, only to have the people he has wronged take their revenge on him. He finally finds redemption by living a normal life in society.
He starts quickly by gaining control over his gang of friends, whom he refers to as “droogs”, and then quickly escalates to his parents and even prison guards. Although Alex has this extraordinary ability of persuasion, he uses it to do bad. This is the opinion shared by Gordon Banks, writer of “Kubrick’s Psychopaths.” In the article Banks (2010) says, “Alex is totally devoid of any empathy for other human beings. He has
Alexander represents another perspective on free will and humanity. F. Alexander is the author of the manuscript entitled “A Clockwork Orange, ” which exists within Burgess’ novel. In it, F. Alexander addresses the government’s attempts “to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness…laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation” (Burgess 25). His sentiment is noble and well-intentioned, effectively introducing the overarching theme of free will as opposed to control mechanics in A Clockwork Orange. Furthermore, F. Alexander comes to represent the idea that although we may make poor choices, our choices make us human. He first champions the liberalist ideal of free moral choice and even supports Alex as an example of the dangers of such “mechanical creation.” Critic Geoffrey Aggeler suggests that, by contrasting F. Alexander’s liberalism with the government’s cynical totalitarian control, Burgess is commenting on a “realistic mixture of the two philosophies” that would ensure “the preservation of…human dignity” (Aggeler). That is to say, the conflict between F. Alexander’s ideals about free will and those of the government can be seen as a reflection of human dignity. Burgess is arguing for a society in which humanity is defined by the capability to mix such ideals, rather than having ideals imposed upon us. F. Alexander, however, struggles to apply this large, overarching philosophy to the betterment individual people. He supports the improvement of mankind at the expense of man himself. In fact, upon learning of Alex’s choice to rape his wife, F. Alexander retracts his support for Alex and his cause and is imprisoned near the end of the story for being “mad with desire to stick a knife in [Alex]” (Burgess 198). F. Alexander had good intentions, but was driven to evil thoughts. This demonstrates that even in the case of a hypocritical politician, there exists a good, an evil, and a conflict between the two. Thus,
Anthony Burgess integrates many social issues today between the Government and People into Clockwork Orange. Many of the issues that Alex faces along with the government are relatable in today’s society. Within the story Anthony Burgess teaches us how people act and how the government works in a more brutal way, The Clockwork Orange expresses this through free-will, maturity and karma, and treatment of people.
A Psychological Analysis of Alex in A Clockwork Orange & nbsp; In A Clockwork Orange, Alex is portrayed as two different people living within the same body of mind. As a mischievous child raping the world, he was as seen as filth. His actions and blatant disrespect towards society are categorized under that of the common street bum. However, when he is away from his evening attire. he is that of suave.
In this novel Alex shows his freedom of choice between good and evil, which is that, his superiority over the innocent and the weak. In the beginning of the novel he chooses to be evil, he shows us that by committing violence act like stealing, raping, and also murdering an innocent person which he got arrested for and put into prison for about 12 years. The amount violence he commits shows his abuse of power and his decisions toward evil. The violent acts that are described in this novel are very graphical and are intended to shock the reader but they also show that the suppression of others is wrong, because it is destructive to the natural rights of humans. Alex consistently chooses evil and violence to show his freedom of choice, ?Now I was ready for a bit of twenty-to-one . . . then I cracked this veck" pg 7. Alex beats, rapes, and robs the weak and ...