Clockwork Orange and Choice
... In Anthony Burgess’ visionary novel A Clockwork Orange, it is demonstrated through the teenage culture how both environmental and self-destructive the human mind can become without the presence of fear; particularly fear of the lord, as well as the repercussions taken upon one in such a case. ... The behavioral conditioning that is used in A Clockwork Orange is very unconventional and ineffective because it takes away a person’s right to choose; the one characteristic that makes us human. Alex is the 15-year-old hooligan protagonist in A Clockwork Orange. ... Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? ... This statement serves for the entire thematic premise for A Clockwork Orange; the realization that the acts in our lives themselves do not mean anything if they do not come in a conscious manner. ... Alex, the antagonizing protagonist and victim of Lodovico’s technique, is an example of the absence of choice and the absence of effect it has on the criminal mind. ... “He has no real choice, has he? ... He ceases to be a creature of moral choice,” (Part II, Chapter 7). ... The unknowing government officials are the antagonists in A Clockwork Orange, because they forcibly remove not only the hate from Alex’s mind, but his love of music as well. This shows that a person not capable of conscious decisions of choice is in turn not capable of the conscious decisions of emotion. The clockwork takes away the whole purpose of being human. ... Doing good in the novel, whether it be by choice or not, is demonstrated to be less effective than doing bad; and in several occasions they come back and hit Alex in the face. ... When this is made public, the public become outraged and the government is forced to remove the clockwork from Alex’s mind. After Alex is back to having the possibility of choice in his life, he returns to his old habits of rape, thievery, and violence with a new gang. ... ” This choice to commit good in his life brings him to a level that is higher than any that he could have ever achieved with the conditioning that he received from Ludovico’s Technique, which cut off his ability to potentially choose and grow.