Thematic essay - A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
In the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess the main character goes through some major changes mentally, by way of conditioning. This brings up debate in whether his actions are his own free will or is he just a machine acting out what he is programmed to do.
Conditioning is a process of behavior modification by which a subject comes to associate a desired behavior with a previously unrelated stimulus. An example would be of Pavlov and his dogs, each time Pavlov would feed the dogs they would salivate. Each time he fed the dogs he rang a bell until eventually without food he could get the dogs to salivate without presenting them with food but merely ringing a bell. In A Clockwork Orange Alex is conditioned by being forced to watch violent acts after he is injected with a serum used to make him sick. The treatment goes on until each time Alex thinks about doing anything wrong such as robbing an old man, raping a girl, or any violent act, he becomes deathly sick. If he were to think of anything wrong it would make him so sick he would vomit and fall to the floor. He learned to control his thoughts from wandering to doing bad things and in turn could only do well. ( Almaz ) (Dictionary).
If a human can not make a choice between good and bad, is that person really human? This is the question that is asked now. If Alex cannot make the choice to do wrong is it really his choice? What makes him better than any machine now that he cannot make his own choice?.
Burgess's definition of moral freedom as the ability to perform both good and evil is presented by implication in his discussion of the first kind of clockwork orange. In his introduction, he states that if one "can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange - meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State.
A Clockwork Orange Authors who write of other times and places help us to better understand our own lives. Discuss A Clockwork Orange in terms of that statement. ... He is a walking robot conditioned by the government - a clockwork orange. ... "A Clockwork Orange" deals with moral judgment and the thought of taking it away from someone. ... The Clockwork Orange", what does the title mean? ...
A Clockwork Orange Authors who write of other times and places help us to better understand our own lives. Discuss A Clockwork Orange in terms of that statement. ... He is a walking robot conditioned by the government - a clockwork orange. ... "A Clockwork Orange" deals with moral judgment and the thought of taking it away from someone. ... The Clockwork Orange", what does the title mean? ...
Classical Conditioning in "A Clockwork Orange" The movie "A Clockwork Orange" is often described as one of the most disturbing films ever made. ... The classical conditioning shown in the film is a perfect example of how sadistic and cruel it is to attempt to dominate a person's instinct and behavior. There is no way to really understand the long term effects of this kind of conditioning. ... There has been an argument made that our current society is running a somewhat reverse classical conditioning on the children. ...
"A Clockwork Orange" is an anti-utopian novel, describing an imminent future in a stately supervised country. ... "A Clockwork Orange" confronts us with an anonymous, totalitarian country, as well as in "1984". ... Whereas it is the Ludovico Technique in "A Clockwork Orange", which exists of a chemical and visual treatment, we find a resembling conditioning technique in "Brave New World". ... But which warning does "A Clockwork Orange" imply? ... Firstly, "A Clockwork Orange" includes a warning against totalitarian state forms. ...
The novels, A Clockwork Orange and 1984 both represent a future dystopia. ... A Clockwork Orange confronts the reader with an obvious view as a totalitarian society because the government uses conditioning on Alex so he is deprived of his rights to express his feelings. ... Irony and betrayal are devices used in both, 1984 and A Clockwork Orange. ... In A Clockwork Orange, the Ludvico Technique is used. ... This is similar to the Ludvico method in A Clockwork Orange. ...
Violence is the universal element in A Clockwork Orange. ... There is not just one function of violence in our lives, just as there is more than one function of violence in A Clockwork Orange. ... Clearly A Clockwork Orange, in comparison to violence of the present day, may be seen as harsh. ... Everything that happens in A Clockwork Orange happens everyday in our society. ... That is what A Clockwork Orange does and why it is perceived as so violent. ...
An orange is ripe or not. ... On the other hand, there are Swiss artisans who can take *any* watch given to them in *any *condition and restore it to near its original condition. ... It is *even* more intolerable that he is conditioned to feel sick when he encounters his sexuality. ... The title has two primary meanings: first, the basic meaning of the Cockney expression (not an example of rhyming slang, incidentally) "as queer as a clockwork orange", something that on the surface was normal, but inside was artificial and unnatural. ... This particular clockwork orange is human on the sur...
The book "A Clock Orange", tells the story of a cruel adolescent of the near future and how he is reformed of his sadistic nature by a special conditioning treatment. ... Soon Alex realizes that this conditioning isn't favorable to his own well-being. ... At this point in the novel Burgess tells the reader that Alex has become "A Clockwork Orange", "that if one can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange - meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with color and juice, but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or th...
A Clockwork Orange I have read a number of books that have caused me to rethink the nature of social responsibility and the role an individual can play in bringing about positive improvements within society. ... I will discuss how the ideas presented in one book, A Clockwork Orange have brought a healthy dose of critical skepticism to my own social and political thought. ... Alexander is a political reformer who was writing a protest book entitled A Clockwork Orange. ... One of the ideas that comes through quite clearly is that the world of A Clockwork Orange is a kind of wastel...
