by Jake Graham
A Clockwork Orange is set in a future run that is run by a totalitarian extremist form of government. Under the control of the government, societies’ regular citizens are often blind to the violent acts of adolescent members of society because of their satisfaction with how the system works. Alex is the 15-year-old protagonist who narrates the first part of the book in a teenage slang called “nadst” (a dialect that infuses cockney British and Russian language). Alex is the leader of a gang which he calls his droogs: Dim, Pete, and Georgie. The dystopian satirical black comedy follows Alex in his teen years, his fourteen years in prison, and ultimately his release.
Throughout the novella, Alex tries desperately to stick to his value exercising his free-will. To Alex, free-will is the only way to live, all those who conform to society’s expectations he chastises. For Alex externally free-will is wreaking havoc on all those inferior in this futuristic society. Internally Alex is trying to lure more conformists into exercising their free will more frequently to reshape society.
Alex wants individuals ultimately to exercise their free-will to lead their own lives. The government in the future is the antagonist and controls the motion of society. Alex views that since the government has such a deep hold on the function of society that they ultimately decide what is “right” and “wrong.” However, Alex believes that it is up to the individual himself to judge his behavior, not the government, or members of the government. He expresses this in Part I, Chapter 4, which reads:
“They don’t go into the cause of goodness, so why of the other shop? . . . Badness is of the self, the one, you or me on our oddy knockies, and that the self is made by old Bog or God and is his great pride and radosty. But the not-self cannot have the bad, meaning they of the government and the judges and the schools cannot allow the bad because they cannot allow the self. And is not our modern history, my brothers, the story of brave malenky selves fighting these big machines?” (Burgess, 44-45)
The reference to the big machines is Alex’s fear that people will have as much free-will as robots. Those individuals will be going through the motions of life without expressing themselves and forever be chained under the government’s control.
Robert McKee’s book Story: Structure and Meaning expands on the topic of “scene inversions,” which is the way a scene moves in a story or film. These scenes are moved by beats that are negatively and positively charged. In the structure of a scene, a dynamic tension must be created by working through a character’s beliefs. Those beliefs must be challenged, reinforced, subverted, or averted for a scene to be successful. There must be forward momentum to progress the story, so these beliefs must be addressed in some way, shape, or form. According to McKee, “sequence by sequence, often scene by scene…[form] a dramatized dialectical debate”, this often takes place when a character’s beliefs are projected (McKee 119).
A Clockwork Orange frequently has scenes of the main character, Alex getting into dramatized controversial debate. Early in the story when talking to his droons his beliefs are projected. Then F. Alexander, the politician, and writer challenges Alex after his Ludovico Therapy prison experiment when he becomes reformed and begins to conform because of the act. Alex also is challenged by P.R. Deltoid and reinforces his beliefs into his argument in the blockquote listen above.
KKJM Reads 
While Alex believes that he is exercising his own free-will throughout the course of the novella, I viewed his actions as something different entirely. Until the last chapter of the book, I felt that while Alex was making his own choices, they were always influenced by his underlying desire to rebel against the oppressive nature of his government, rather than to find his own fulfillment. By the end of the novella, however, Alex has regained his ability to decide whether he is going to be good or bad, commit acts of violence or follow the straight and narrow. At this point, he decides to walk away from his life of crime and abandons his droogs in favor of finding a woman to start a family with. While one could argue that this was Alex conforming to society, I felt that he was following his own desires in this instance, since after he jumped out the window and cured himself, the government had more or less told him that they would leave him be and allow him to do as he wished. He had no reason to stop being a criminal, yet after a bit of time had passed, he realized that this way of life now felt too young for him. I think that at the conclusion of the book, Alex growing up and making the decision to leave the gangs of his youth behind is symbolic of him finally beginning to make choices that will bring him true fulfillment, rather than a sense of false happiness that stems from rebelling against the control of the government.
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I see you have used this general idea of the government in control. Although it is assumed rules are made by the government I do not remember that exact quote. I could have missed that, if so, add to that the beginning of your post. Also, go into furter of who Alex is, not by describing him but rather give direct examples. Who is Alex and who he is as a leader. In connection to our class on Tuesday, we could look at Alex through a different lense. You expressed he wants to be free but no one of us is ever free. The highest point of this “government” is not free. The controlling idea that I gathered may be that Alex exercises his desires by rebelling, he enjoys rebelling. The counter idea is that when we follow the “rules” of society we are conforming to what others believe is right, his desires of rebelling are suppressed. In addition, although there are “rules” to this society, I see no indication that it’s working for them, people do not even seem to enjoy life. What does that say? Alex is living a life that he is enjoying his desires although they could be viewed as wrong in society, he is happy. Is that wrong too? I think by even looking at his parents or PO officer we could close read to see that they are unhappy in this society.
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I agree with what you have to say about Alex wanting to exercise his right of having free will. I think what is interesting about the lecture we had in class is that Professor Kopp brought up not using the term “free will.” It made me want to look deeper into the post and the book itself as well as Alex. Alex is a very sadistic, crazy, self-driven character. In my opinion, his lack of control makes him act out in extreme rebellion. At least in the beginning of the book Alex shows this hostility. When the book goes into the character development of him wanting to start a family with a woman, like Kassidy mentions–it shows that Alex could possibly be acting this way in order to obtain love and a sense of self-respect.
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