A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess Edition: 3
First published: 1962
Publisher: Penguin books
ISBN number: 0-14-018882-7
Number of pages: 148 Why I have chosen this book: Well I have chosen this book because I watch the movie already, so this would be easier reading for me. And I have chosen this book because it was one of the books that I have to read for the assignment: reading two about the same genre. Short summary: The story is about a boy of 15 years old who got in prison, and he is chosen for an experimental test in prison what had to changed his live forever.
Theme of the book The theme is violence, in the first part of the book you see that Alex get a kick of violence and because of the constantly violence movies he’s sees during his treatment he is developing a process that makes him disgust violence. And it will show us what would happen if you try to get rid or to cure some behaviour of a person on a wrong way, it was maybe better for Eric to sit in prison instate of this experiment, because he gets very depressive and is even considering suicide. Summary: The book exists of three parts. Eric (main character) and his friends: Georgie, Dim and Pete are all boys of the age of 15. They where always looking for trouble, and when the evening falls he and his friends terrorises the town after drugging themselves with drinks. Alex is an intelligent boy but violent. He ‘s cruel and he commits his crimes with pleasure; older people have to be punched, books have to be damaged and women have to be raped. After a fight with his friends, was Alex betrayed by the other members. He has thrown into prison and sentenced to for fourteen years. In prison he is reading very much about religion and all kind of other things. Later on he heard from other guys in prison that there was a scientific experiment against violence. They need one man for this experiment, Eric thought it was better then prison. He was selected for the experiment. At the beginning he liked it very much, he gets a nice room, bed and good food. But Alex discovered after a short time that this special treatment wasn’t so nice as he had thought. He gets injections every day and they tide him down on a chair. His eyes are hold open with special pinches and he has to watch very violence movies. This process repeats every day and Eric begs to stop the videos. When Eric have seen a lot of violence movies he disgust it and after a while they tell him that he is totally recovered and he is free to go. The only place where he can go now is to his parents. But they don’t accept him anymore, and they also give away his room to an other man. Eric is very depressive and even considered suicide. When he went to the library for a book about suicide he saw some guys that he had maltreated before he got in prison. When they saw him they beaded him up. A bit later he saw his old friends Dim and Pete, Dim is become a policeman and arrested him, maltreated him and thrown him some where on the street where know other people where. The other guy Georgie was killed in an other fight. After the fight, an old man takes care about Eric. This man used Eric to work against the government with his political friends to make clear that the government was wrong and that they can’t use people for experiments like this. F. Alexander wanted to show what would happen if he plays the music that was used during the experimental test of Eric. F. Alexander places two boxes under the room where Eric was sleeping and played the music. When Eric waked up from the music he got very depressive and doesn’t know what to do so he jumps out of the window. And a short time later Eric woke up at the hospital. At the end of the book he noticed that he’s getting old. But he absolutely wants a family and he’s getting out to find a woman to marry. Main characters Alex: He is the main character. He is a boy of 15 years old and it’s a very violence boy. He is very aggresif from nature and gets in prison. In comparison to the other boys of the gang, he is the most kind of all. Dim, Georgie, Pete: They are the other members of the gang. Dim is a bit clumsy and not very smart. Georgie is smarter and wants to be the leader of the gang. Pete is a passive boy and has not much to say he stays a bit more on the background. Construction Perspective: The whole story is told from the first person, totally from the point of view of Alex. As a matter of fact is Eric the narrator. Settings: The story takes place at a future time in an England that has become a totalitarian state. Life is prescribed and controlled by law. The story is told in chronological order. Language: the narrator used a very difficult kind of language, I couldn’t understand much of it. The narrator translated all the normal words in difficult words that I couldn’t understand such as: all the violence on the street with his friends, he called it a “Real horrorshow”. So that takes me a while to figure out all the meanings of the words. And I also read that some of the words aren’t English at all, the narrator used Russian words! Title The title is “a clockwork orange” and this is a book what has been written by F. Alexander, the character of the man who take care for Eric after his fight. The orange means the human as a product of nature. But the government tries to make humans like machines that run like a “clockwork”. The relationship between theme and title is: F. Alexander has written this book a clockwork orange (title) about the wrong things that the government have done to make aggressive people like Eric “better” They use violence (theme) to make him better or not, maybe he’s a machine know controlled by what the scientist have done.
Own Opinion It was very hard for me to read, because of a difficult kind of language that the author had used. Although I have seen the movie (what I enjoyed very much) I really don’t understand what they where trying to say in this book. There are maybe a view parts that I recognised from the movie what support me a little while reading the story. The idea is very good and I think that when you understand his kind of language you can really drift a way in the story. The part I like the most is that the main character Eric is tide down and have two watch very violence movies. And at the end when Eric is sleeping in a room in the house of F. Alexander, and he knows that they during the treatment of Eric used a song of Mozart, and they played it all the time. F. Alexander closed the door of Eric and turns on the music of Mozart. Eric gets very derpessive and doesn’t know what to do because he can’t turn of the music. So he jumps out of the window. I don’t like the part of the book before he gets in jail, it’s a bit boring (I mean in the book, in the movie I like the first part) The Author I think I liked his kind of writing when it was in Dutch. And I will try to read other work of this author because I think he’s really interesting and maybe isn’t all his work so difficult as “a clockwork orange” I don’t want to recommend it to other people, only to people who are really good in English. Literary history It’s a book of this time so that means it’s a modern literary. Genre The genre is crime because the whole book is about crime and what to do about it and that is the easiest way I can explain.