A Clockwork Orange and Never Let Me go are both set in a dystopian future. They both deal with a young protagonist trying to accept their fate in their respective societies. However. They are very different people, Alex Delarge is very impulsive and quick to anger person, Kathy H. is very empathetic and mild-mannered person. But they can still both be considered an “anti-hero”, they have that in common. Therefore both of these books share many themes, but since they were written in two different time periods, and the societies of these dystopian futures are very different, they have different approaches/views as to how to deal with the problems present in the novels.
Both novels are written by English authors and both take place in England. But Clockwork Orange was written in the 1960’s “future”, which is now the past. Never Let Me Go was written in 2005, but takes place in an alternate 1990’s, which would also make it the past. They still relate in the fact they are a future in which the government tries to dictate to keep some kind of order. It seems that they both go extremes to keep or move the society to where they would like it be. But since the novels were written in completely different time periods the authors seem to take different approaches to very similar themes. In both of the novels they take a deep view at themes dealing with government power, freedom of choice, the complexity of what makes a person “human”, and morality.
Anthony Burgess’s experiences in life are a basis for the novel. Anthony claims the most traumatic scene in the novel, when F. Alexander’s wife was raped and died because of it, was supposedly inspired by the event that happened during the London 1944 wartime blackout. During the blackout his w...
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...about. In the process of the governments’ actions the question of humanity is brought up. However, they took different approaches as to what makes an individual a human person.
Works Cited
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Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: Norton, 1986. Print.
"The International Anthony Burgess Foundation." International Anthony Burgess Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2014.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Print.
Marcks, Catherine. "Never Let Me Go - Finding Who We Are." Never Let Me Go - Finding Who We Are. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
Simions, Minodora O. "FREEDOM OF CHOICE AND MORAL CONSEQUENCES IN ANTHONY BURGESS’ A CLOCKWORK ORANGE." (2013): 65-68. Web. 21 May 2013.
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
Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell and Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol are prophetic social commentaries which explore the broad social wrong of a totalitarian government. Both texts depict a futuristic, dystopian society in which individuality is destroyed in favour of faceless conformity. Niccol and Orwell through the experiences of their protagonists reflect the impact isolation from society has on individuals. The authors of both texts also use their protagonists Winston, who cannot understand the rhetoric of the government party and Vincent, who is trapped, unable to achieve his dreams because of his imperfect genome, to demonstrate individual rebellion against society and explore the significant social injustices of a totalitarian state.
to read. A Clockwork Orange is an interesting book, to say the least, about a young teenager, named Alex, who has lost his way, so to speak, and commits several serious crimes. These crimes that Alex and his “droogs” commit include: murdering, raping, beat downs, robbery, etc.
A Clockwork Orange is Kubrick’s one of the best works. This film is about the futuristic government state where citizens are estranged and blinded by the ferocious youth culture. Film is exceedingly thought infuriating as well as unsettling. This film is not just not about sex and violence, but it has a deep and psychological notion behind it.
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
For those of you who don’t know this famous opening scene, I am talking about the movie "A Clockwork Orange". This movie, In my opinion, Is one of the greatest movies of all time. Not only a great movie, but directed by a great man, Stanley Kubrick. Some of his other movies include Full Metal Jacket and Dr.Strangelove. Full Metal Jacket deals with Vietnam, while Dr. Stranglove deals with the cold war and nuclear weapons. "A Clockwork Orange" deals with moral judgment and the thought of taking it away from someone. The pattern here to me is very clear. Kubrick liked to dive into subjects that are very controversial and gave his own opinion in the form of a movie. A Clockwork orange is filled with a lot of hidden meaning and satire, which is what I’m going to discuss in this
A Clockwork Orange was claimed by many to be Burgess's greatest accomplishment. The main character, Alex, is a young teen with a drive for violence, rape and general rebellion without remorse, yet he still has a charming intelligent quality. The law finally catches him and he is convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. After two years he becomes aware of a route to early release and after killing a cellmate he is elected (almost voluntarily) to be the first to travel it. However, the process is not at all what he expected it to be. He soon finds himself being subjected to immoral films and induced illness to condition him to become ill at even the thought of a "bad" act. When conditioning is complete, A...
The freedom of choice and the rehabilitating form of corrections encase the realm of A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. It produces the question about man's free will and the ability to choose one's destiny, good or evil. "If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange-meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or State".
This essay has compared the differences between the societies in these two novels. There is one great similarity however that both make me thankful for having been born into a freethinking society where a person can be truly free. Our present society may not be truly perfect, but as these two novels show, it could be worse.
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.
The Giver by Lois Lowry and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley have many similarities. They both take place in futuristic utopias where happiness is the overall goal. Jonas and Bernard, the major characters in the novels, are both restless individuals who want change. Despite the close similarities, there are many contrasts in the two novels. The childhood, family, and professions arrangements are differently portrayed in the similar novels The Giver and Brave New World.
A “clockwork orange” can be described as something that has a convincing outer appearance yet in the inside is merely controlled by outer influences, such as a clock set in motion by its owner. In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess takes us into the future where violent criminals are forced to be “good,” and introduces us to Alex, a young teen who engages in a life of rape, ultra-violence, and Beethoven with his “droogs,” or friends, and talks in the slang language of “nadsat.” He goes through various phases in his life, evolving into a more mature level of thinking; each of these phases can be seen as clockwork orange. What makes this novel so realistic however, is how real Alex really is and how each of his phases into maturity represents a part of us.
Kelly, William E., Kathryn E. Kelly, Robert C. Clanton. College Student Journal. Mar. 2008: 84-86.
After reading the book and watching the movie 1984 there were similarities and differences between the two. The novel is about manipulating people in believing in something that isn’t really there and about erasing history. Both the book and film focused on: authority, government, and war. The book and film follow the theme of conformity to control society.
Never Let Me Go is a mysterious story to the reader at first, but as they begin to get more in-depth, find out it’s more than one could think. Kazuo Ishiguro’s vivid imagination reflects well into his book Never Let Me Go, as the book explores one’s own morality into real life as they read it. Kazuo Ishiguro reflects the ideas of Post-Modernism and his own life and imagination through Never Let Me Go, which explores the morality of humans and their fate.