Before I start this review, there are a few things that need to be discussed first. For the majority of you, this will not be a surprise what I am about to say, but for those who do not know, Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange is a controversial novella in the subject matter it uses to convey it’s overall message. I will still be discussing these controversial aspects and will not censor them, so those who are uncomfortable hearing about brutalities may wish to read something else instead. The second part is that, in my personal opinion, to review this book I do have to spoil several sections of it. Most importantly, the ending and the aspects revolving around it. The ending is fairly common knowledge for some people, I knew the ending before I read the book myself without feeling letdown by a massive spoiler. However, if you wish to read this book without the prior knowledge, please pause reading now and resume at a later time when you’ve read it.
Now on to the review itself.
A Clockwork Orange is a first-person narrative about teenage criminal Alex. I do not use the term criminal lightly, and far harsher words would be more appropriate. While it is not a stated rule, a good deal of fiction features a hero as the protagonist. Whether or not there is a proper antagonist, the protagonist is almost always the hero. Sometimes the protagonist is allowed to be the villain, and Alex may very well be the darkest and most vicious version of this kind of protagonist. Alex is a rapist, a murderer, one section even broadly shows the reader he is a pedophile. His reason for doing all of what he does is, compared to the general rule of fictional villains, is absolutely nothing. Alex runs on something that exists in real life but is not always shown as graphically as it is here.
Alex is having fun, and nothing else. He enjoys breaking people’s property. He enjoys drinking milk spiked with drugs. He enjoys gang-raping a woman to death in front of her husband, whom he also beat mercilessly. Alex is devoid of sympathy, his existence spits in the face of altruism and kindness, and he is seemingly aware of this fact as he’s loving every minute of it.
Villain protagonists are not nearly as rare if you personally seek them out. I understand why you might, and my experience is from my own writing. While I can’t exactly back up the claim at this point in time due to my status as amateur, I tend to write a lot of villain or anti-hero protagonists. Recently, I’ve been interested in going towards more traditional heroes. Because even bucking the system can be old hat, and make you want something fresh. So in a sea of mostly heroic novel or novella characters, Alex become one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever read.
It’s funny, because you’ll never ever like him. He’s disgusting, foul, arrogant, cruel, immature, and uncontrollable. So instead of liking him, you are fascinated by him. You don’t care if he lives, and wouldn’t be unset if he dies, except maybe if you felt he deserved fare worse than whatever fate he’d gotten. For as complex and as three-dimensional as Mr. Burgess made him, there is only one word to describe him: Evil. He is nothing but evil made flesh. He has never done anything besides evil, and never will. You can’t take your attention off of him for it.
Alex is eventually caught during one of his crimes, abandoned by his gang in the process, and sent to prison. In prison, the government handpicks him for their new project; the Ludovico Treatment. Alex is forced into a chair, eyes held open, and watches horrific acts of violence whilst listening to Beethoven and other classic music, two things Alex loves more than anything. These constant viewings trick Alex’s brain into disgusting him whenever thoughts of violence or the sound of classic music occur to him. Every time, he goes to vomit, but is somehow incapable of actually doing it, meaning the feeling is also a writhing pain. Thanks to whom he is, you don’t exactly feel bad about his state, but are now interested in seeing how this will change him. He’s effectively been brainwashed into being a model citizen.
The novella’s main theme is that this is wrong. Even the most disgustingly evil people must still be allowed to be human beings. That brainwashing is itself horrific and no better than the criminals it could be used on. Moreover, it also does not work.
Alex is not a changed person in the slightest, he is just restrained. I hate to spoil more of the book, however, I need to discuss one section as quick as I can. Alex’s parents have kicked him out after his arrest, which he only learns after returning home to find their new roommate. After his parents painfully explain the reasons to him, showing they still love him despite finally realizing who he is and fearing him, Alex’s first reaction is to attack the roommate. He is unable to falls ill. So instead, he cries his eyes out in front of them. His reasoning is that he feels betrayed by these people who love him, and he leaves making everyone feel somber.
Except Alex himself. His emotional state was a lie, he simply wanted to make them feel horrible. Even under torture and mind control, Alex finds a way to be a monster. It’s poignant, it’s helps with the overall theme, and continues your hate-interest in the character.
I’ve talked a lot about Alex, that’s because this is a first-person narrative story. We as reader’s are not allowed to learn anything about the universe of this story outside of its effect on the protagonist. All the reader has to go on is what Alex himself tells them, be it the situations, the scenery, or the other characters. It is all about him, as it is purely his take on every single aspect of the story. Not only that, but all of these descriptions are written in Nadsat.
Nadsat is the fictional slang created for the novella that Alex and his gang speak in. Or, in his words, he and his droogs speak in. The language was based on Russian, so Russian speakers may figure out the meanings faster, but as someone who doesn’t speak the language, it took me not all that long to figure it out either. Admittedly, the first time I opened the book, the presence of Nadsat confused me enough to put it away and come back to it sometime later. If you open it and think you’ll be confused, the words will make enough sense after some repetition, and some versions have a dictionary in them, although mine did not.
And now, for the ending. The ending was originally censored in the American release. Alex is freed from his brainwashing, the government pays him off so he doesn’t blab that it was a failure, and he goes back to becoming the monster he always was. However, in the original version, which my version keeps intact, the story continues on for one more chapter. In this final chapter, it is years later. Alex has a new gang with new teenagers despite being an adult, but something is different. He’s now becoming bored with his typical brand of merriment. He shoes them away and meets up with former droog Pete, and they reminisce about old times and the other droogs George and Dim, who died young and became a corrupt police officer respectively.
Pete is now married. This sparks in Alex what he wants to now do. Be married himself, have a son, and ponder if said son will be as vicious as he was.
Several people are of the opinion the edited version is better. The debate is on Alex being redeemed, and the possible implication that he was only evil because that is part of being a teenager. Opinion are opinions, and I respectfully disagree. I prefer the original.
For my money, Alex is not redeemed in this ending, he is simply bored. Redeemed would mean he felt regret, that he would make up for past transactions, and the story makes it clear he does not and will not in the slightest. The only thing that has changed about him is his motivation and general interests. There is nothing, in fact, stating he may get bored of this new lifestyle as well.
As for the implication of aging, I feel that may be a stretch, especially in a novella that is blatant in its messages and all the better for it. Remember, Dim was a teenager too, and the least intimidating or evil, yet he grew up to continue being horrific in his own right. In fact, the novella seems to argue Dim became a worse person as he got older. Alex did get older, but that may or may not have anything to do with his new passions, and those new passions do contain a connect to his old ones as he is not worried if his child will be a monster, only interested in finding out. Pete was never given enough time outside of Alex’s vision for us to see if he grew, learned a lesson, always hated the gang, or anything of the sort. Pete is flat, but that works considering that was all he was meant to be, a character we forget about until he makes the most important part of the ending happen.
I know at the start I gave a warning about the content, meaning I know full well it makes the book not for everyone. Yet, with that in mind, I feel that this piece of classic literature is a must-read. There exists nothing else like this, and it has stood the test of time. If you have not read it, perhaps you will want to consider what I said about the endings and choose a copy based on that, or a copy with the Nadsat dictionary included if you so wish. This book is a masterpiece, and if you are too squeamish for it, at the very least try to read a few of the tamer scenes or find a more in-depth recap than I gave. This book is worth knowing and understanding.