A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess: Droog’s Viewpoint of an Orwellian Dystopia

I felt this was one of those cult books to read before you die and enhance your reading prowess rather than as an enjoyable or relaxing read. And what does Burgess mean by pairing clockwork and orange?

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Teen ‘droog’ Alex relates of his nightmarish existence in a futuristic world of chaos via Nadstat lingo, a sort of slang mixed with Glasnost, which took a little getting used to, but once I had referred to the glossary a few times, I began to understand that moloko was milk, horrorshow means good, and I found I could ‘viddy’ see the meanings of other such words within sentences.

What Clockwork Orange Means

Alex’s friends George, Pete and Dim tear through the streets, wantonly fighting, raping and robbing. The old folks of the town lament the old days when things seemed good. A writer is caught in the crossfire, when Alex blithely tears up his beloved manuscript that is the namesake of this novel. I felt bad for the author, knowing just how precious a piece of writing can be to an author.

After the death of an old woman, Alex is incarcerated by the ‘millicent’ in the Staja State Prison, where this shameless subject becomes part of an experiment – the dodgy Ludovico mind control technique.

A Book to Read Before you Die

A book on a par with George Orwell’s 1984, the theme seemed to ask whether a man is truly good if the bad were simply taken from him. In the style of Stalin’s totalitarianism, Alex is de-individualised in the name of the many. To this end, Alex is forced to watch images of mayhem and violence whilst doctors inject Alex with nausea-inducing drugs. To twist the knife, they also create the same association of feeling sick with Alex’s love of classical music and sex.

Alex reacquaints himself with the author of A Clockwork Orange on his release, and we can see that Alex has become same himself – a fruit of nature crushed by the system, to behave as programmed, like clockwork.

But there is also a deeper meaning to these pairing of words, in as we can see he was a clockwork orange prior to the Ludovico technique of the Staja Prison in that nature has its own programming of how a human develops. In his senior years, Alex begins to crave a peaceful life, leaving behind his hectic years of teenhood, just as nature intended.

The question arises, where is free will if not found in the system and  not in nature? Burgess seems to make the point that a man cannot be a man without free will. A heavy read, that might be due to an essay or exam requirement (or to read before you die), the question of the individual versus the system is an important one that concerns us all.