''A Clockwork Orange'' Comparison Essay
''A Clockwork Orange'' Comparison Essay
Singing in the rain, I'm singing in the rain…." As this vivacious song disappears into the terror of the night, the emergence of one of the greatest novels and movies, A Clockwork Orange, begins to take shape. Anthony Burgess's contemporary novel, A Clockwork Orange, and Stanley Kubrick's outstanding movie, "A Clockwork Orange," (Based upon the novel) have many important similarities and differences, which aid in confirming A Clockwork Orange as one of the most terrifying yet extraordinary pieces ever to be created.
A Clockwork Orange is a nightmarish fantasy of a future England, where teen-age hooligans neglect the somewhat standing laws of society, and take control of the streets after dark. The novel's main character, fifteen-year-old Alex, and his three 'droogs,' (friends) Pete, Georgie and Dim, take place in all-night acts of random violence and total destruction. Alex is eventually betrayed by his so-called brethren and is caught by the police for killing an innocent lady. He is taken to prison, where he eventually partakes in the "Ludovico Technique," where Alex is "reconditioned" into a model citizen, by being forced to watch movies of things that at one time he had loved including; beating people, raping young women, and partaking in random acts of violence. However, the technique proves to be extremely harmful to Alex, rendering him incapable of almost everything. He is found and used as a political stunt by a man whose wife Alex and his friends had once raped showing that Alex is just a mindless pawn in the cynical hands of the authorities, the true meaning of a "clockwork orange."
One of the important similarities between Anthony Burgess's contemporary novel and Stanley Kubrick's outstanding movie of A Clockwork Orange is the interpretation of what the true meaning of a "clockwork orange" is, which is important because it is the basis for the entire story. In A Clockwork Orange, Alex is only a "clockwork orange," something mechanical that appears organic. By this I mean that although Alex is human, and capable to say and think whatever he chooses, he cannot, for in fact he is being used like a machine by the government, doing whatever they desire with him.
From the similarity between the interpretation of what the true meaning of a "clockwork orange" in both Anthony Burgess's contemporary novel and Stanley Kubrick's outstanding movie of A Clockwork Orange comes the difference in how the government...