Annotated Bibliography – A Clockwork Orange
Before entering the class, I was not a skilled reader and barely read five books. Throughout the duration of the class, my entire landscape of how I read and understand narrative has changed. In 15 weeks, I was able to read and analyze the text of four separate novels. One of which is a novel I chose:Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. The novel was not only interesting but also provided me an opportunity to understanding the elements crucial to constructing a story with writing.
A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian novel narrated by the main character, Alex, who begins the story as a violent adolescent trying to break free of his society’s constraints. After being apprehended for a variety of violent and disturbing crimes, Alex is sentenced to jail and becomes a subject of a psychological experiment known as the Ludovico Technique. The Ludovico technique temporarily brainwashes Alex to suffer extreme nausea whenever the desire to harm others emerges. Once the treatment’s effects are disabled from a fall that sent Alex to the hospital, it becomes possible for Alex to choose his own fate. After briefly returning to a life of violent crime, Alex decides that he would rather start a new life on his own terms. The final scene is Alex bumping into an old member of his violent crew and after hearing of his pals fresh start (with a wife and family), decides to start his own.
As a novel the premise of A Clockwork Orange is that we as humans can only decide for ourselves what is good and bad. The controlling value of the story is that we possess the ability to control our own fate. The counter idea of the novel is that we as humans are born without control of our fate, that other outside factors control and govern our life. The positive and negative charges throughout the story that support the controlling idea and the counter idea center around the concept of conformity and nonconformity. The protagonist of the story is Alex and the antagonist is Alex’s society which is hell-bent on maintaining order. Alex challenges that order by choosing a life of rebellion against the chains of his societies’ cultural codes that demand moral perfection.
The experience of immersion in the mimetic world of the text was disrupted by Alex’s actions of robbery, abuse, and rape in the early stages of the novel.. At first, I felt that Alex was dark and sinister, full of contradictions, which led me to look deeper into the actual meaning of not only the story, but of the main character Alex. Thematically, the text is not focused on the dark and sinister violent acts of the damned, but instead the narrative presents an example of how members of an actual audience–human beings must ourselves decide what is good and evil, and live in a way that is more evil than good. To Alex, his violent and sinister actions are “good” since he is able to exercise his freedom in a society trying to suppress it. On the flip-side, Alex views those who conform as bad. Why? When Alex undergoes the treatment and is unable to express what he views as good and bad, he is then placed in a very interesting situation. Alex finds himself in a tug-of-war between societies expectations and what he morally believes in. When Alex breaks free from the effects of the treatment and makes decisions with a clear conscious he decides to lead a path on his own terms. By leading a path on his own terms, he is morally satisfied by following what he believes is good and remains free of societies expectations which is that he is a violent animal against conformity. An example of this takes place when Alex is talking to his droogs:
But, brothers, this biting of their toe-nails over what is the cause badness is what turns me into a fine laughing malchick. They don’t go into the cause of goodness, so why the other stop? If lewdies are that’s because they like it, and wouldn’t ever interfere with their pleasures, and so of the other shop. And I was patronizing another shop. More badness is of the self, the one, the you or me on our oddy knockies, and that self being made by the old Bog or God and is his great pride and radosty. But the not-self cannot have the bad, meaning they the government and the judges cannot allow the bad because they cannot allow the self. (p.44-45, Burgess)
This quote by Alex to his droogs displays his ideologies and his values that tow the line between what he views as good and evil. Alex believes that one can only decide for himself what is good and bad. Individuals to Alex can be good and bad inherently. Burgesses’ novel along with Alex’s beliefs claim that the only freedom one has in life is the ability to choose and act accordingly in an inherent nature (which is rebellion) that goes against the grain of societies’ expectations.
The thematic register of the text I encountered was that Alex has been acting out in these actions as adolescent member of society. Most adolescents are notorious for breaking the rules of their parents as well as society. Alex essentially is breaking the rules of society by rebelling against the constraints of his life. A behavior which is very common in most individuals his age. Alex not only is falling into his own cultural codes, but also falling into his societies’ expectations. Those expectations are that the youth is corrupt and viewed as dangerous, which parallels the cultural codes in our own existence.
In her article “The Ethics of Reading: Close Encounters”, Jane Gallop argues for the value of close reading is a key practice of being what is called an ethical reader. An ethical reader is someone who is immersed within the text of written language. Alex is also an ethical reader of life. Alex as a character is a protagonist who visually is able to read the constraints of society to flexibly bend his life into existence. Surprising details that challenge the dominant reading of the text is that Alex’s nonconformity actually makes him chained to societies’ expectations. Alex’s society views the adolescent teenagers of his world as corrupt and violent, which Alex falls into in efforts to unconform. While Alex is non-conforming to his society as a whole, he is conforming to the social expectations of adolescent members of society.
Alex acts violent because he reads society as constraining his own choices in life, which implements his thought process that violence is the only true way to break free of conformity. His behavior also points to why Alex destests those who are against his cultural codes associated with violence. Alex’s societies’ cultural codes are that “the youth is corrupt” (38). Alex believes that this cultural code in his own world throughout the novel is to strike fear “into those who are blind by societies constraints” (61). To Alex, that fear created by his society is to conform and maintain order in life. Alex brilliantly reads this cultural code in his own world and rebels.
The intertextual codes of A Clockwork Orange are complex and were personally difficult to identify at first glance. After close reading, I was able to draw some conclusions on the inner workings or “intertextual codes” of the text using the hermeneutic code. The thematization of the novella is obvious that each character is bound to the constraints of personal moral principle or to society’s constraints. Alex undergoing the “Ludovico Treatment” is the proposal of the enigma, due to the fact that it challenges the controlling idea (that society governs our existence) and also the counter idea (we alone possess the ability to govern our own existence), which places Alex in a state of “limbo”. The request for an answer is presented when Alex is challenged by F. Alexander when he attempts to make Alex as a poster child to push for anti-conformity. Alex having second thoughts on being exploited is the snare. Jamming, F. Alexander plays violent music forcing Alex to jump out of a window to break his legs. Alex then expresses the suspended answer when he is free of the constraints of the Ludovico Treatment and is able to return to his previous mindset before his sentencing. Alex’s decision to start a family is the disclosure of the story because Alex makes a decision that expresses conformity and nonconformity. Alex does not conform because it is possible he could still lead a life that is violent and he conforms by making the decision to possibly lead a family orientated life. Since the ending never reveals what ultimately happens we as the reader are left unable to ultimately distinguish what Alex chose in the end.
The tropes and figures of A Clockwork Orange use the nadst language to guide the text in the first half to distinguish Alex’s world from ours. Burgess uses the combination of Russian and Cockney dialect to give Alex and his world within the text element of fiction that does the story justice to relate to world we as readers exist in. Nadst is a trope used to turn us as readers away from the traditional domain and into another domain involved in metonymy (effect that stands in for a/or the cause or vice versa). Burgess’ subiectio of nadst created within A Clockwork Orange asserts the youth of Alex to open the story. The dialect used by the main character and Alex’s droogs are also rebellious to the constraints of proper English. As Alex grows older, he speaks in a Cockney dialect which reflects his knew and conformed-self following the Ludovico treatment.
Silverman in “Subjects in Semonics” states : “the readerly text thus attempts to conceal all traces of itself as a factory within which a particular social reality is produced through standard representations and dominant signifying practices”. An example of this is present in A Clockwork Orange as Alex is depicting strictly the rebellious and radicalized version of his own society. Alex also displays following the Ludovico treatment the negative effect of being a conformist. Within his society it is concealed the positive effects of his societies’ demand for conformity. The semic code is mentioned in Silverman’s text as, “the major device for thematizing persons, objects, or places. It operates by grouping a number of signifiers around either a proper name or another signifier which functions temporarily as if it were a proper name”. A Clockwork Orange’s semic code is Alex and his hencemen’s group which he calls his `droogs’. Droog actually means young goon, which is exactly as his society views his entire makeup as a member of society. Alex’s society portrays the group as adolescent goons. Alex and his droons are notorious for hanging around at the milk-bar and going into intoxicated rampages. Alex in this sense is fitting into the genre in place within his society. Within his society Alex is a droog, a drinking goon who contributes nothing else to his society other than being a violent radicalist. The character of Alex is actually a character that fits neatly into Silverman’s quote. Alex in one section actually uses a rehearsed dialect to blend into his society:
“…so I said in a very refined manner of speech, a real gentlemen’s goloss: ‘Pardon, madam, most sorry to disturb you, but my friend and me were out for a walk, and my friend has taken bad all of sudden with a very troublesome turn, and he is out there on the road dead out and groining. Would you have the goodness to let me use your telephone to telephone an ambulance?”
The devotchka sort of hesitated and then said: “Wait.” Then she went off, and my three droogs had got out of the auto quiet and crept up horrorshow stealthy, putting their maskies on now, then I put on mine, then it was only a matter of me putting in the old rooker, and undoing the chain, me having softened up this devotchka, with my gent’s goloss, so that she hadn’t shut the door like she should have done, us being strangers of the night.” (Burgess, 23-25).
Alex in this scene acts a chameleon. Alex merely blends into what his society accepts and blends into this person to win over the woman so he can take advantage of her and rape her. To gain access into her home, Alex conceals who he is as a person briefly to earn her trust, being that most teenagers are violent and corrupt in his world.
Throughout the text a certain phrase is repeated, “what’s it going to be then, eh?”. The phrase of “what’s it going to be then, eh?” is a prime example of thematization of the enigma. The thematization of the enigma involved in the hermeneutic code, but though close reading we are able to dissect this interpellate Alex as the one chose to blur the lines between what is good and evil. The answer that Alex is looking for lies within this question, “what’s it going to be then, eh?”, which asks what will he be by the end of the novel is good or bad. Alex by the end of the novel decides to morally be at peace on his own terms and decides what it will be in the end. In the end what the story ends up being, and effectively answers the quote by Alex ended between both good and evil and able to choose free from his society’s constraints.
Alex in A Clockwork Orange actually goes against a certain narrative that most readers overlook. The narrative of most works of literature is that the protagonist must be the hero, or positive in some fashion. Traditionally, most literary heroes are viewed as positive or possess heroistic qualities. Alex on the contrary, actually is an anti-hero, or a character that is the protagonist of a story with villain-like qualities. Alex as a character destroys this projection, by being a hero of violent nature. The antagonist of the story is society, and Alex positively disrupts the antagonist by acting in a negative fashion. Not only does the narrative go against the traditional structure of story which is presented in McKee’s “Story: Structures of Meaning” but also takes the form of “anti-plot” (45-55, 68-79,168). A Clockwork Orange also goes against the view our own society works in our own personal lives. In most cases, our society governs our daily lives leaving us unable to choose our fate. The narrative our society wants us to believe is “good deeds, good things happen” and “bad things, bad outcomes”, but the truth is what is good for some is bad to others. On the “other side of the coin”, bad things are sometimes good, ultimately it is up to us as individuals to determine for ourselves our own ethical understanding of life.
The addresse of the novel is to all of those who conform and live life based on the cultural codes of our existence. The narrator is trying to display to the reader how our everyday life is manipulated around meeting imaginary expectations that society has provided as roadmaps for us until our existence is halted by death. These expectations are “you must do good and lead a good life”, “work and no play”, “we are free”, and “do the crime and you’ll do the time”. The “real truth” mentioned in Rabinowitz’s text is that bad people live good lives, there is play involved with work, we are not always free, and those that commit crimes do not do the time. All of which are present in A Clockwork Orange. Alex exercises play by joyfully carrying out his violence without maintaining a job and leads by the end of the story a decent life without being what society believes is a “good person”. Alex is free as a person by the end of the story once he is unconstrained by societies’ shackles and moral principle only to arrive at a decision from somewhere without the antagonist’s influence. Alex commits crimes and ultimately does pay a limited amount of time by being administered the Ludovico Treatment, but is freed when a fall snaps him out of the trance.
Burgess in A Clockwork Orange, frequently illuminates the aesthetic of violence which thematizes throughout the entirety of the novel. Alex states, “my endeavour shall be, in such future as stretches it’s snowy and lilwhite arms to me before the nozh, overtakes or the blood splatters its final chorus in twisted metal and smashed glass on the highroad, to get loveted again. Which is fair speeching.” (Burgess, p.22) What Alex is stating is that the highroad in life is paved with blood being splattered, so it is fair to say that much more blood shall be spilled to achieve what he wants in life. This quote also expresses his joy in the aesthetic. When Alex has the husband of the woman he is raping tied up he states, “then out comes the blood, my brothers, real beautiful. So all we did then was to pull his outer platties off, stripping him down to the vest and long underpants (very starry; Dim smecked his head off near), and then Pete kicks him lovely in his pot. (Burgess, 31-32). Again this pattern displays the love Alex has for this aesthetic that he expresses using light adjectives. Light adjectives being used in the sentence is used to express a lighter tone which correlates which how individuals interact when expressing delight in something or a certain task. We are able to distinguish Alex as a character through close reading as a result. McKee in Story is famous for defining character as being “revealed in the choices, a human being makes under pressure-the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.” (101), Alex as a character is distinguished by the same elements of character. Alex questions not only his existence in his world, but the very power of that existence throughout the novel’s duration. Alex’s character is challenged by forces externally (his societies’ constraints) and internally later in the novel (following the Ludovico Treatment) when he becomes ill when exposed to his former hobbies related to his violent past.
The rhetorical dimension of the A Clockwork Orange like Herman Hesse’s Demian, places the narrative in two different spaces in time. Both novels’ protagonist tells the story as a narrator as an adolescent the first half of the novel. Then, in the second half of the novel are told by their adult selves in the future. A Clockwork Orange is addressing an audience which trusts the society they live in, and asks questions that invite the narratee (the narrator’s adresse), to ask themselves the same questions that Alex asks to characters throughout the novel that challenge his view of his world. The most important question that Alex asks the reader is “what’s it going to be then, eh?” (Burgess, 15, 55, 145). Throughout each part of the novel Alex asks this question repetitively. The question is asked by Alex to the reader to ask them, what is it going to be? The good or the bad in life, which path will you as the reader lead. This question lies within the controlling value of the text and invites the reader into the experience of the text to allow us to decipher the intertextual codes. Alex in part one, chapter two again invites the reader to hangout with the idea of social construction which reads: “the attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable sweetness, to ooze juicily at last round of bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose. I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my sword-pen.” (Burgess, 66).
This statement invokes the reader to face the reality of the world which in ways correlates to Alex’s world. In our world (the United States) the government wants to control our born rights as citizens, but also looks to suppress our rights to maintain their form of order in the world. The suppression of our freedom to choose is a form of repression as individuals. As an individual Alex is a victim of the same constraints we experience in our society. Protesting an issue with freedom of speech leads to riot controlled force, jail-time, and reformation that correlates to aspects that directly affect Alex’s development as a character. As a character, Alex is an inauthentic character that ends to be generic because by the end of the novel he has met the social and cultural codes of his existence in A Clockwork Orange.
The novel is a triumph for its call to break free from our own personal lives and the forces that control our own existence. A Clockwork Orange brilliantly captures the struggles that we all experience in life, such as deciding what is good or bad and how the constraints of our moral principles often govern our decisions. Burgess encourages the reader to see the constraints of life for what they are and separate ourselves from the fear of conformity and nonconformity. Although our lives might be governed by forces greater than our own power, we ultimately can the power to follow or stand alone. The reading has changed my life, because as a reader I never thought of immersing myself within a text. As a reader, I simply just read books to read them. Elements present in narratives, the core values of story, and rhetorical concepts involved in literature has changed my entire perspective on writing as a craft and reading as a hobby.
Reflection
Prior to the course, I barely read (no more than five books) in my adult life. Reading to me wasn’t even on the spectrum of something I would call a ‘hobby’. My skills as a reader were only sub-par, but my mindset concerning reading was focused on just curiously following the story, oblivious to its inner workings. After finishing the class, I found that there are so many elements that play into narrative and specifically a work of fiction. After completing our course I have learned many surprising details of each of the four novels we were required to read.
We were assigned to analyze each work weekly and post to a blog our findings and how the findings pertained to the methods we studied in class. We practiced discovering the premise, controlling and counter ideas, the conflict that triggers aesthetic emotions in the reader, as well as the controlling values at work in each novel. Another key element we were required to dive into was the intertextual dimensions of a given narrative, including the hermeneutic, symbolic, and cultural codes of the text. For us to properly gain the full experience of the text we as readers developed our skills through close reading. Close reading, as presented by Jane Gallup, is a method that allows the reader to analyze the surprising details of a given text and how a reader comprehends the text that the author is trying to convey. Practicing this method, so Gallup argues, allows us the opportunity to be the opportunity to be ethical readers, where we recognize our projections and strive to get what a text is actually saying on its own terms. Rabinowitz’s scholarly article looks for the truth in fiction, The truth in fiction is that most information is never fully revealed within a text. By not fully revealing the information of a text, it allows the reader to draw and expand on all the concepts covered in the class. Culler’s article taught us the structure of a story and how each concept is connected and varies entirely throughout a given text.
Our first book was A Clockwork Orange which was the book that I picked for the class. My book was entertaining and very thought provoking as a reader. Through closely reading the text, I was able to present a blog using the methods we learned in class to present my findings. Each week we as a group were assigned to repeat the task, the other books included in our final reading list were Last Night In Montreal, The Secret Scripture, and A Long Way Down. Each book improved our skills weekly. As we created the blogs we as a group collectively were able to accurately understand the structures around concepts involved in narratives, rhetoric, and also what it takes to be a good reader.
Our professor also displayed various texts that were closely associated with the material we are learning. A famous text that was included in our required readings was Robert McKee’s Story. McKee’s novel focuses on many concepts that are associated with the concepts we covered in class only in more depth. We also read texts that directly pertained to information on how author’s sculpt their stories and were asked to analyze them.
As readers individually each member of the group was asked to remove themselves from the prior knowledge learned in class. When we project our own moral values and ideologies into a text we are susceptible to comprehending text differently than we would if we hung out with the information that the text is trying to convey to us. Reading the text of a work (especially fiction) requires the reader to fully immerse themselves into the text and the world of that novel. Or as our professor calls it “sit in the seat” of what the text is trying to tell us.
This class has enhanced my ability to read texts accurately ten fold. Today, I am a much better reader than I was before entering the class thanks to our professor’s skills. I also now fully understand the elements of story and have made copies of the works we learned in class to highlight and keep to further progress as a reader. As a writer my skills have also improved greatly since the beginning of class. The style of writing each author has effects the work from the first to the last word. That being said, it also takes a lot of research to develop a story. Each portion of the text must be mapped out and properly introduced to craft a truly successful story. Writing is work, that work takes years of revisions to craft.
My experience in the class was a good one. Each day I felt I learned more than I did the previous day. Sometimes I felt a bit confused, but after group discussions and individual meetings with our professor I was able to improve to the best of my ability weekly. Our group used google drive to collaborate effectively to ensure that each week we delivered the best possible information within our assignments. The entire experience was very pleasant. Information was presented in a way that it could be broken down simply so I could wrap my mind around the concepts introduced and listed above. Office hours were made available so I could visit with our professor if help was needed at any moment during the class. The entire experience was one that I will take with me for the rest of my life moving forward. The concepts introduced will always be apart of me throughout the entirety of my writing career. As a writer, I cannot wait to explore these concepts moving forward in not only my academic career, but also my writing career as well following graduation this May. I am forever thankful for the opportunity to learn each day in this class.
KKJM Reads 