Reading the classics: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

The Book 

The book was supposedly written in just 3 weeks, influenced by Burgess’ experiences when he returned to England after being abroad in the 1950s. The book was published in 1962, but is set in the “future”. This future has strong connotations to the 1960s though, as this was the first time there was a definite youth culture with its own music, drugs and slang. 

The book consists of 3 parts; before prison, prison and after prison. The last chapter where Alex has doubts about his violent lifestyle was omitted in the first American editions because the American editor thought it out-of-character and unrealistic. And I must confess I agree. 

The author

Anthony Burgess was born in 1917 and died in 1993. He was a writer and a composer, and while this book is the best known of his work, he was actually mostly a comic writer. He also wrote as a critic for several magazines and studied classical writers such as James Joyce, and he translated a number of works into English. He composed over 250 works of music, but he remains known for his writing. 

Review

I’ve read this book before, but it was a long time ago, and I honestly only remembered the scene where they break into a house and find the manuscript called “A Clockwork Orange” and then the scene where he is conditioned with films and music. But there was a lot more to it than that. 

The main character of the book is Alex, a young 15-year-old boy,  who has a violent streak. At night he runs with a gang and their main objective seems to be to get as violent as possible. They beat up people, break in to houses, trash places, steal money and rape women. During the day they are supposed to be in school. Even though Alex is the youngest he feels like he’s the leader of the gang, but the others take offense at this and one night when a break-in goes awry they leave him and he is arrested. 

After a time in prison he is selected to be the guinea pig for a new program that will “cure” his violent tendencies. This program consists of forcing him to watch movies of violence while making him feel sick and in pain. It works and he is released. Upon his release he meets a great many of the characters from his former life and things do not go well for Alex. He ends up in hospital where they “cure” him again, meaning they take away the pain and sickness that would surface whenever he thought of violence. He then goes right back to his old life, getting a new gang together and reveling in violence again. However, he soon starts to feel that something is missing and when he meets an old buddy he thinks that maybe this something is a family, and the quiet life he has always seemed to despise.

At first I really didn’t enjoy this book. All the violence was a bit too much for me, and it is written in this made up teenage slang language that just seemed a bit cumbersome. But towards the end I did start to like it more. I had to think to myself “What is this book about? What am I supposed to get out of it?” My answer is that it is about free will and whether or not humans are humans if “good” is forced upon them. Alex seems to be inherently “evil” or “bad”, wanting nothing more than to spread violence around him, but then he is forced to be “good” by having his body conditioned to react with illness and pain whenever he thinks of violence. This makes him desperate to be “good”, but only as a means of self-preservation. When the conditioning is removed he goes right back to his old “bad” life, at least for a long while. 

In my opinion the book is also about the dangers of a totalitarian government. The people who take in Alex after he is released want to use him against the government as they feel that this conditioning is a dangerous tool, that can be used not only for hardened criminals but eventually for everyone whom the government feels is a threat to them. 

Is it still a classic to me?

I would say yes. The aspects of morality, free will and the dangers of the government having too much power over its people are timeless subjects that will always be relevant. 

I gave this 3,5 stars on Goodreads. The language is a turnoff for me, but I enjoyed how the book made you think about “good” and “bad”, free will and how much society can impose control on someone without them losing their own self and to which degree society should try to do that.