Essay on The Need for Brutality in A Clockwork Orange

Burgess A Clockwork Orange, a critically acclaimed masterstroke on the horrors of conditioning, is unfairly attacked for apparently gratuitous violence while it merely uses brutality, as well as linguistics and a contentious dà ©nouement, as a vehicle for deeper themes. Although attacks on A Clockwork Orange are often unwarranted, it is fatuous to defend the novel as nonviolent; in lurid content, its opening chapters are trumped only by wanton killfests like Natural Born Killers. Burgess Ted Bundy, a teenage Lucifer named Alex, is a far cry from the typical, spray paint-wielding juvenile delinquent. With his band of droogs, or friends, Alex goes on a rampage of sadistic rape and ultraviolence. As the tale unfolds, the†¦show more content†¦The movie was pulled from British theaters in the early seventies and is still illegal, in any form, in the United Kingdom (Contemporary Authors 491). In addition, ripples from the film tarnished the novels popular image. On account of the movie, some readers regard the book as a flip testimonial on behalf of mindless, juvenile violence (Edelheit 126), and Burgess is dubbed an antisocial writer and the stepfather of a punk cult (Burgess, A Clockwork Orange: A play with music) which sprung up around the Kub rick film. Compiled upon the movie-galvanized image of the novel, the handiwork of ignorant critics cements Oranges reputation as a phantasmagoria of sex and violence. An anonymous reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement once labeled the tome a nasty little shocker (qtd. in Burgess, A Clockwork Orange: A play with music), and the pithy epithet now graces the cover of the novels most recent American printing. Yet, through it all, the author maintains that he took no pleasure in documenting Alexs brutality and even invented Nadsat in an effort to make the violence symbolic (Burgess, Contemporary Literary Criticism 38). He never seeks to justify Alexs actions and believes that his crimes must be checked and punished in a properly run society (Burgess, Contemporary Literary Criticism 38). In addition, Burgess bases the most horrific scene in the novel -- the rape of the writers wife -- on personal experience. During aShow MoreRelatedDissecting a Clockwork Orange1815 Words   |  8 Pagesâ€Å" You men need to tuck away your penises and surrogate penises (guns), because you will never get anywhere with them. Masculinity is a myth and a dead end.† - Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 classic A Clockwork Orange is an interesting beast. The film has been vilified, banned, condemned on artistic grounds and yet it survives. The film’s hallucinatory visuals depicting a strange, narcissistic modernistic society, steeped in seventies art deco and harsh, contrasting lighting, paint aRead MoreComparison of a Clockwork Orange and Lord of the Flies2273 Words   |  10 Pagesâ€Å"Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man.†Ã‚   How do Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange and William Golding in Lord of the Flies reflect violence and social responsibility? Both Lord of the Flies, first published in 1954 and A Clockwork Orange, published eight years later, focus on the inherent human capabilities for evil as well as good. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously posits that ‘whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good andRead MoreTheme Of A Clockwork Orange1815 Words   |  8 PagesAnthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange follows Alex as he violently navigates the streets of a futuristic, totalitarian state with his friends Pete, Georgie, and Dim. After a night of beatings and robbery, Alex and his gang break into the country house of an author and his wife. They attack the author whose manuscript, â€Å"A Clockwork Orange,† condemns any suppression of free will, and force him to watch as they rape his wife. The following night Alex attempts to assert his authority over the gang, andRead MoreMoral Development In Anthony Burgesss A Clockwork Orange1734 Words   |  7 PagesWhen first published in 1961 , the American edition of Anthony Burgess’s novel, A Clockwork Orange was published without it’s twenty-first chapter, outraging it’s author. But what, one might ask, could be so important in a single chapter to cause such an outrage? The answer is blatantly obvious. Omitting the final chapter of any book would likely cause much dismay to the author. But in the case of A Clockwork Orange, the final twenty-first chapter completely shapes the entire meaning of the novelRead MoreManhunt Analysis : Manhunt The Game1833 Words   |  8 Pageshis latest snuff film. Players must skulk their way through nearly two dozen missions, exterminating every neo-Nazi, sexual deviant, and psychopath in their way while the camera captures all the gruesome details. Through ingenuity, stealth, and brutality, you must escape Carcer City. And the path to freedom just happens to involve lots and lots of graphic, easily-imitated violence. (The kind that could lead to the game being bann ed or censored in multiple countries.) This is why I say that ManhuntRead MoreSynopsis Of A First Outing On A Wedding2821 Words   |  12 Pagesset out his navy blue loafers. The debate arose with whether he should wear the periwinkle blue socks to complement the shirt, or the royal blue socks with obsidian stripes to make his loafers stand out. Quite the Dandy, the rest of his outfit would need a quick cleaning and pressing in order to enhance the ensemble. It has been a hectic week, but his eyes, meeting someone at a coffee shop should give no excuse to dress like a peasant. 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