A Clockwork Orange - Teenagers Have Free Will?
A Clockwork Orange - Teenagers Have Free Will?
The process of growing older is accompanied by many serious moral questions that demand mature decisions. It is free will and the capability to make choices that make us human, and it is the harnessing of these two things that ultimately separate the adults from the children. In Anthony Burgess’ novel, A Clockwork Orange, Alex, the protagonist and narrator, tells the story of how he went from being a violent leader of a gang to a boy without the physical ability to commit an evil action. It is the ironic story of one teenager’s struggle to keep his freedom of choice. Over the course of the story, Alex’s development illustrates how free will is the essence of maturity and humanity.
As the novel progresses, Alex’s choice of music type changes, symbolizing an expanded awareness and a different attitude toward his position in society. In Part I, Alex returns home after a night of extreme violence and puts on the classical music. When he listens to the violin concerto by the American Geoffrey Plautus he says, “Then, brothers, it came. Oh, bliss, bliss, and heaven” (38), but he envisions “vecks and ptisas, both young and starry, lying on the ground screaming for mercy, and I was smecking all over my rot and grinding my boot into their listos” (39). A concerto is a classical piece in which a group of instruments interact closely with a solo in a very strong fashion. It is this strength that allows Alex to conjure up thoughts of violence and confirm his societal position as a youthful troublemaker. He is reflecting on the day. However, the real reason that Alex loves music is not the violent images, or the summarizing ability that it has. The reason that Alex has a passion for music is because it connects him to a powerful feeling. Through music he is able to pray and worship a higher power. Later, after he has attempted to kill himself, Alex hears Beethoven’s Ninth for the first time since he has been deprogrammed. He says:
Oh, it was gorgeosity and yumyumyum. When it came to the Scherzo I could viddy [see] myself very clear running and running on like very light and mysterious nogas [legs], carving the whole litso [face] of the creeching world with my cut-throat britva [knife]. And there was the slow movement and the...