Banned Books: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Fifteen year old Alex is well known in the streets of London, him and his Droogs, who terrorize any and everyone. Fighting, stealing, bullying, raping, and drinking is all in a nights work. No worries for these teens who do as they please. Alex’s parents swallow the lies he tells about working nights. His Post –Corrective Advisor is well aware that he has been running the streets but knows he is helpless in stopping him. These droogs feel like the night is theirs for the taking. Until Little Alex finds himself in prison for murder. Life inside those walls are much different from the care-free life he has been living. There they try to cure him of his violent ways and thoughts. Sickness overwhelms him whenever he thinks of rape, murder, and fighting. Imagining doing wrong after the treatments he has been subjected to, sends his mind and body into turmoil. In order to return to society he must be purged of the urges to commit crimes. He has no choice but to be an honorable citizen or suffer the pain his own body will create.

A Clockwork Orange is a very somber look at the life and mind of an unruly teen. Alex is the definition of a criminal. He has no remorse for the crimes he commits. He encourages those around him to participate. He has absolutely no problem lying to those people who care about him. He actively pursues more crimes to commit. Alex is every parent’s worst nightmare. Throughout the course of the novel you expect Alex to grow and to want to change. The changes do come but they are forced and therefore not genuine. If he is forced to be only one thing then he becomes a clockwork orange. He becomes something unhuman because he doesn’t have the free will to make a choice. The choices are being made for him.

I struggled in the beginning of this novel. Mostly because of the language. Burgess introduced a slang that is not easy to decipher. After the first couple of chapters, I was able to understand (most of) the terms that the characters were using. The tone of the novel was very obvious from the beginning: we have a group of ridiculously unruly teenagers who don’t trust or respect authority, their elders or the government. Being inside the mind of Alex, the humble narrator as he refers to himself, heightened that sense of tension and overall manic behavior. There is no doubt that he is aware of the pain he inflicts and every decision that he makes. It is unsettling to say the least. Burgess creates this unease masterfully, drawing us into this world and this language where your worst fears and ideas about youth have come to life.

When this novel was first released in the U.S. in 1962 the last chapter of the novel was removed. A Clockwork Orange is three parts, seven chapters in each part. Chapter seven of part three was removed at the request of the publisher. Burgess re-released the novel in the U.S. in 1986 with the last chapter included, like it had originally been published in Great Britain. The inclusion of that chapter, to me, makes a huge difference in defining Alex’s character. So here we have a different type of censorship when we have a publisher choosing to change the work of an author to create a certain mood in those reading the book. I’m glad Burgess made his final decision to re-release the novel in its entirety. It allows a certain amount of closure that I find more appealing than ending it a chapter earlier. But this isn’t the only type of censorship this novel suffered. According to the American Library Association a bookseller was arrested in Utah for selling this novel and it has banned in high school for its language. I found it ironic that a book that is about free-will and making choices could be censored to where people aren’t allowed the choice to even sell it. I agree with the book: you’re only human if you are allowed to make a choice.                                                                                                                                                                          http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons Retrieved 02/28/2014