A Clockwork Orange | Book Review | January 2021

 Happy New Year everyone! 2020 was an extremely hard year for all of us, but hopefully 2021 will be a little kinder to us. 

At the end of 2020, I read probably one of the weirdest novels I have ever read. The novel is a dystopian novel published in 1962 by Anthony Burgess. It focuses on a futuristic society, based on the life of protaganist Alex. Alex and his 'droogs' are extremely violent to people in society, and goes on the journey of beating people up, raping and threatening women and encapsulating gang culture. Now, when I was reading this it reminded my slightly of the uprising of the 'Mods and Rockers' in the early 1960s. Since this novel was published in 1962, so it probably wasn't directly linked to this, but it made me think about the capacity of teenage culture and their behaviour. Burgess suggests the novel as a 'near future' narrative, but reading it in 2020 it was all too familiar as a satirical focus on the gang culture of the late 20th and current 21st century society. The alternative language, which is a mix of Slavic, Russian and Cockney rhyming slang, which in some parts is quite incomprehensible. The slang is a symbol to the generational shift in language, as we have words like 'sick' and 'mad' that can mean alternative things in my generation, but would be completely different in generations before. 

                            

The theme of sex, pornography is significant in the novel, and the erotic and violent male gaze towards women is heavy as well: 'flip flop big bobbing groodies'. The objectifying of women in the novel shows how patriarchy becomes more powerful and significant in society. Alex treats his mother with disrespect also, as he expects her to do everything as a housewife. His language towards his parents makes the reader think that he is the patriarch in the household, but it is the social status of him as a gang member that probably makes him think so much of himself. 

The real message of the novel I think is the censorship and the chaotic truth of society in this near future world. I think from the perspective of a 21 year old in 2020, comparing it to society from the 1960's onwards, it shows the denigration of behaviour to other members of society: 'it's no world for an old man any longer, and that means that I'm not one bit scared of you, my boyos, because I'm too drunk to feel the pain if you hit me, and if you kill me I'll be glad to be dead'. The depression and negative impact of society to older members of society can show the shame that Alex and his 'droogs' has brought to society through the violence and clear lack of respect. Since society in the early 1960s was slowly allowing sexual freedom to become more accepting, hence the 'Swinging Sixties', and the term 'teenager' came in to effect in the 1960s, which created a whole culture that depicts the lives of 'teens', which is still stereotyped today. Burgess's novel has conceptualised what he imagined what the 'teenage' culture would turn in to, as the delinquent example of Alex shows; he is violent and disrespectful to every other person in society. 

A focal point in the novel is when his 'droog' and him plan an almost 'knock and run' situation. However, the plan was the beat the couple in the house up, and as Alex learns later in the novel ends up killing the wife in the house. The intertextuality of the 'A Clockwork Orange' is presented in the novel, as the husband of the wife he kills is evidently writing the novel and foreshadows the novel's ending through its symbolism near the beginning of the text. Due to complications, Alex ends up in prison, which allows Burgess to question the morality of prison reform and incarceration. The association of Alex with 'Billyboy', may refer to the gang culture of the 1920s in Scotland. To be honest, I learnt about the Billy Boy gang by watching Peaky Blinders, but all I know is that they were pretty violent. So going from that information I can just imagine how violent Burgess was imagining the gang culture in the novel. 

The prison reform attempted (the Ludovico Technique) in the novel shows how the incarceration of prisoners is full of injustice and inhumane acts. This part of novel reminds me of Oscar Wilde's: ' Ballad of Reading Gaol', where he talks about the prison system when he was imprisoned for homosexuality in the last 19th century. The slyness of the people that Alex goes to trust and to get him out of the situation, deceives him for their own benefit. Considering the social issues of the time, this can link in to individualism and the lack of conformity and community.

At the ending of the novel, it is clear that however shocking and indoctrinating the reform that Alex went through in prison was, Alex still goes back to gang culture. I think there is a message of nature over nurture, even though he is offered a life away from the gang culture he was brought in to, he doesn't want to be reminded of the horrendous time that he has been through. There is also the message that however stultifying and changing the attempt at reform is, there is no guarantee that the criminals won't go back to being criminals when they get back out in to society. Alex was used as a guinea pig, and I think that Burgess explores the psychological and physical effects of that, and the moral guidelines that are denied through that too. 

This book is definitely an interesting one, with a lot of themes and points of discussion. Don't be frightened off by the language, there's a glossary at the back of most editions! 

Happy Reading! 

Rose x