A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

In this edition of A Clockwork Orange, the last chapter is added, which was original to the British book, but taken out of the America version.

The language in this book is a mix of Russian, English and invented slang.

Alex is a teen (Nadsat ......or Russian numbers 11-19) hoodlum with a gang of other boys. Society is over run by the likes of these boys. They spend time in bars, getting high, street fighting and committing heinous crimes against society. Alex likes to shoot up and then listen to classical music. He hallucinates and gets all worked up.

Alex is the leader of his small gang. He at times feels threatened by the other members and beats them up.

The boys beat up an old man coming from the library. They go out into the country and break into a house. They knock around the husband and tear up the book he is writing (A Clockwork Orange) and rape his wife. The final act that puts Alex in prison; the boys go to an older, wealthy part of town where they plan a break in. They want to steal goods from the home. They are unable to gain access through the front door so Alex climbs into an upper story window. By now the old person living there has called the police. Alex comes downstairs and eventually knocks the elderly in the head with a statue. She later dies, solidifying Alex's time in prison. As the police arrive, Alex's buddies chain him up and leave him because he beat them up earlier.

Alex spends two years in prison. (He is committed to a fourteen year term.) He plays the music on a stereo in the prison chapel. He is housed with many other men in one cell. Finally he beats up one man for laying on the same bed. The man dies and the government decides they must do something about the over crowding. They use Alex as a guinea pig in their new treatment.

Alex is taken to some new buildings on the prison grounds. They tell him he will be cured of doing evil and returned to society within two weeks. He gets very excited. He is shown to a nice room that he doesn't have to share. He is given good food and what the doctors tell him are vitamin shots because he is malnourished. Then he is taken to watch movies. He is strapped to a chair and his eyelids are held open. Alex is made to watch graphic violence with classical music. The 'vitamin' shots make him ill. He is conditioned by the government to become ill at the mere thought of violence. When he is able to become ill without the medication and only violence, he is returned to society.

Alex goes home and finds his parent's have rented out his room to someone else. He wanders the streets, goes to a bar, gets high. When he comes down from the high he is suicidal. He can't even think of ending his own life without becoming sick from the violent images in his head. He decides to go to the library and find out a way to kill himself without violence. At the library he runs into the old man that he and his friends beat up on the streets years ago. The old man attacks him along with the other old men in the library. The police come. Alex sees that one of his old gang and one of his enemies have become policemen. They take him out to the county and beat the tar out of him and leave him there. Alex wanders until he just happens upon the house where he and his friends beat the husband and raped the wife. He stumbles to the door and is taken in by the man. The man recognizes Alex from the newspaper article about the government's experiment. He gives Alex food and a place to sleep. He does not realize Alex is the person that broke into his home over two years ago. Alex and his friends would wear masks when committing some of their crimes. The man also named Alexander tells Alex that he will call some of his friends and they will use him as an example that the government has gone too far in taking the will of a person away. The friends come and take Alex to an apartment where they lock him in. By now, because of some of the things Alex has said, Alexander has identified him as one of the people that raped his wife which lead to her death. Alex falls asleep on the bed and wakes to some of his favorite music playing in the next apartment. Unfortunately for Alex he is now conditioned to become violently ill at the sound of this music because it was used during the graphic scenes he was forced to watch. He cannot escape the sound and gets sicker and sicker. Finally he throws himself from the window. The fall is not enough to kill him. He ends up in the hospital.

The government sees that they have gone too far with their experiment and 'cure' Alex, or return him to his former state. His parents come and tell him he may come home. He goes back to his old life and forms a new gang.

The final chapter, formerly left out of the American version; Alex is out with his new gang and begins to feel depressed. They want to go out and cause harm and chaos but Alex doesn't feel like it. The other boys go about their business and Alex goes out for some tea and milk. He sees Pete a member of his old band of friends. Pete only nineteen but newly married to a lovely girl. Alex and Pete talk for a minute. Pete and his wife leave to go to a party. Alex begins to realize that he is not depressed, at the ripe old age of eighteen he is just maturing out of his violent stage. Now he thinks he should begin looking for a wife so they can have a baby.

I loved this book. At first the language threw me off, but you figure it out quickly. (There is a Nadsat Glossary if your book doesn't contain one.) The violence is terrible but strikes a chord. I liked the controversy that it put forth about how far to go to 'cure' society of its many ills. I truly thought about this because of the socialism that is ever creeping nearer under the guise of 'government help'. Honestly, even though I know it is wrong to take someones will away........I was really glad that they did it to Alex. He was a beast.

The book became a little far fetched for me towards the end. The fact that Alex just happens to show up at the same location he committed a crime years ago and the victim and he form some kind of relationship....felt a little contrived. Also the fact that he was repaid with violence by just about everyone he crossed was a bit over the top. And finally his turn towards good by growing out of violence? In some sense most people mature and grow out of some of their youthful mistakes but I'm not sure about growing out of violence to the degree.

Rating 5 I totally recommend this book, BUT...........

Rating R violence, rape, language, drug use, murder.