#aplit15readingthework

Orwell sets up the scene for every utopian society that will eventually be today’s very popular genre. He was the original guy to have a hero speak out against a corrupt government, but he did it way better and without being cliché. Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth ain’t got shit on Orwell - not to mention the actual language he crafts. He paved the road for all these authors writing a basic hero’s journey attached to a corrupt, post-apocalyptic society. As you enjoy your teen flushed fantasy novels, keep in mind Orwell got you there, thank him.

This caught my attention for a few reasons. The first is the formatting and font. In the book, it is in all capitals, bolded and in a different font to let it stand out and to express the imagery of the slogans. The obvious totalitarian commands are almost abusive. The words are hard and cold, like a corpse. Right from the beginning, you know everything about the society and government they live in. It reminds me a lot of The Handmaid’s Tale with all the set rules. This scared me because this is the kind of apocalyptic shit you have nightmares about. The scariest part is, you could see this happening. With technology growing and advancing as fast as it is today, the government could easily watch your every move. In some ways they already do. The NSA already filters through internet searches. What’s stopping them from watching your everyday life? The point is that there are privacy rights being given up. We already have that today when you go through airport security. They scan you, literally stripping you from your identity to your bare skin.

I watched the original Disney Alice In Wonderland and was quite intrigued. The movie, even though it is about Alice In Wonderland, incorporates parts of Through The Looking-Glass such as the Jabberwocky poem, as well as the Walrus. The movie also includes characters such as Tweedledum and Tweedledee that were no in Alice In Wonderland, but rather in Through The Looking-Glass. It’s almost as if the movie is really a mix between the series rather than just on Alice In Wonderland. The same could be said about the modern adaptation of Alice In Wonderland by Tim Burton which also includes the twins.

By the time Alex somehow accidentally stumbles to the door of yet another person he had wronged years ago, I pretty much stopped questioning the ridiculous odds. I guess Alex beat, raped, or killed pretty much everyone in the general area that he lived in. A still suicidal Alex is taken in by F. Alexander, whose wife was killed by Alex years before. Somehow I am not shocked that the man conveniently does not recognize Alex. The man wants to use Alex’s case for some campaign against the government. Eventually Alex’s medication causes him to become sick and pass out, when he wakes he is tortured with classical music until he attempts suicide, a tactic by F. Alexander to demonstrate the horrors of the government. Alex survives the fall, and is once again capable of his old violent thoughts. The sometimes omitted final chapter has Alex back with a new gang only to find that he doesn't care much for violence or classical music. Having outgrown his childish tendencies without the Ludovico medication active, Alex imagines starting a family. The final chapter serves almost as a way of saying “It all works out in the end,” but not in a cliche way. I think this is where Burgess makes his strongest stance against limiting free will with Alex as the ultimate example. Rather than having Alex return to his old self, which is what every reader wants, he has Alex change on his own. Alex giving up violence willingly reinforces the fact that taking away one’s will to live, even the most horrible person, deprives them of their chance of moral growth.

By the time Alex was finally able to leave prison, I was certain that he wished he had chosen to stay. The two week “Ludovico’s Technique” treatment tormented Alex by forcing him to watch violent films while a medication created negative connotations with all of the things Alex once found pleasurable. The goal of the treatment was to transform Alex into an upstanding citizen, but along with giving Alex horrible sickness every time he thinks of committing some kind of violent act, the medication takes away Alex’s ability to listen to classical music, or do anything that he used to associate with his violent tendencies. Even after everything Alex has done, I still feel bad when he decides he must kill himself only because he is unable to do something horrible to someone else, apparently the only thing that gave him any will to live. Honestly at this point in the book I am morally confused. While I know that Alex deserves everything he gets, I can’t help but feel sympathetic. I want him to be able to feel passionate about the things he loves, but the things he loves most are rape and murder. Possibly the most important question in the book is raised by the Ludovico Technique. Is it acceptable to deprive a person of their ability to make choices of their own free will, even if those choices will hurt others? Burgess makes a strong argument for the answer no.

One of the most fascinating parts of the book for me was when Alex goes to prison. He was set up by his closest friends and convicted of murdering an old lady. The cruelty that Alex and his friends are capable of not only toward strangers, but toward each other baffled me. I honestly thought several times throughout my reading that I couldn't have imagined such horrifying characters if I tried. Once Alex was inside, he was first able to find comfort only in the memories of past acts of violence he committed. Later Alex is given a bible to read and is particularly moved by the parts where Jesus was viciously beaten. Despite the obvious deep love of violence and crime, Burgess still manages to make Alex appear to be very intelligent. It wasn't until Alex agreed to be part of an experimental treatment in order to be set free that I realized something else about Alex: he really isn't as smart as I thought he was. Time after time he makes decisions based on what ever he wants in that very moment. Not only has this impulsive decision making already landed him in jail, but it then causes him to become extremely sick and lose his passion for what he loves.

Alex goes home after his eventful, but completely ordinary night, and goes right up to his room in his parents’ apartment and starts listening to classical music on his stereo. Right away this reminds me of Hannibal Lector, a serial killer (who somehow seems much more sane than Alex), because he had a love for classical music along with murder. The fact that Alex is 15, but goes on committing these horrendous acts is disgusting, but also incredibly fascinating and entertaining. When he wakes up in the morning, he goes to the record store to buy another piece of classical music, then lures two young girls back to his parents home, gets them drunk and rapes them. He then goes to his room and falls asleep to his new record, dreaming about more violent things he wishes he had done to them. 

I started reading the book and it was so non-stop that I didn't even stop to think about what was going on until the end of chapter three. I was simply amazed by everything that happened in the first night. Alex and his gang or “droogs” as he calls them get into a gang fight, mug an old man, break into a house to beat a man then rape and kill his wife, and rob a store. They also steal a car and drive it into a lake. All of these events back to back almost seemed unthinkable to me, except they were written down right on the pages. What was even more unthinkable to me was the fact that the boys showed no remorse for these actions, and showed nothing but pleasure, especially Alex.