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A Clockwork Orange (novel): Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
[[File:ClockworkOrange.gif|frame]]▼
| title = A Clockwork Orange
| caption =
| author = Anthony Burgess
| central theme = Free will
| elevator pitch = In a crime-ridden future, a teenage hoodlum is coerced into a medical experiment to "cure" his addiction to violence
| genre =
| publication date = 1962
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
|'''Prison Chaplain''' }}
'''''A Clockwork Orange''''' is a 1962 novella by Anthony Burgess. It was adapted into a 1971 film by [[Stanley Kubrick]]. In a [[Dystopia|dystopic]] future where [[Teenage Wasteland|street crime is rampant and youths are uncontrollable]], teenage sociopath Alex and his friends [[Teens Are Monsters|prowl the night spreading terror and destruction wherever they go]]. By daybreak, Alex returns home to his [[Adults Are Useless|vapid parents]], who turn a blind eye to his activities, and enjoys his second favorite thing in the world: classical music. On one particular night, his gang brutalizes some people they find on the street, then steal a sports car and drive out to an isolated mansion to torture and rape the resident couple. They finish the night off at their local watering hole, where they sip milk laced with narcotics.▼
▲{{quote|"''When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man."''|'''Prison Chaplain''' }}
▲A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 novella by Anthony Burgess. It was adapted into a 1971 film by [[Stanley Kubrick]]. In a [[Dystopia|dystopic]] future where [[Teenage Wasteland|street crime is rampant and youths are uncontrollable]], teenage sociopath Alex and his friends [[Teens Are Monsters|prowl the night spreading terror and destruction wherever they go]]. By daybreak, Alex returns home to his [[Adults Are Useless|vapid parents]], who turn a blind eye to his activities, and enjoys his second favorite thing in the world: classical music. On one particular night, his gang brutalizes some people they find on the street, then steal a sports car and drive out to an isolated mansion to torture and rape the resident couple. They finish the night off at their local watering hole, where they sip milk laced with narcotics.
Things are going swimmingly for Alex until his gang begins to chafe under his leadership. Alex is still content with pointless violence, but the gang is starting to grow up and think about making a profit. After a fight for supremacy, he reasserts himself as the leader, but bows to the gang's interest in robbing a wealthy widow's house. Alex takes the lead in the robbery, but the widow discovers him, leading to a fight. As the gang flees, they betray Alex and leave him for the police to apprehend. At the station, the police inform Alex that the widow died of her injuries, making him a murderer. He is quickly sentenced to a lengthy prison term.
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** Alexander, Peter, George and Dimitri. Detecting a pattern?
* [[Mind Rape]]: The Ludovico treatment... which is creepily similar to the Real-Life [[wikipedia:Aversion therapy|Aversive therapy]].
* [[Neologism]]: Some of Alex's Nadsat [[Future Slang]] has trickled into common usage, most notably "horrorshow" and "ultraviolence." "Droog" is widely understood as well, though not very widely ''used''. An alternate name for the trope on TV Tropes is
* [[The New Rock and Roll]]: Subverted. Music really does inspire Alex to commit horrible acts, but it's ''classical'' music that he listens to. He speaks of "Ludwig Van" as an icon. The trope is emphasized when Alex reads a newspaper article that suggests a keener interest in the arts might stop teenagers from committing crimes. He laughs at it.
* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]: Alex and his gang deal this to numerous people. Alex himself is on the receiving end twice from prior victims of his after the Ludovico treatment.
* [[Oh Crap]]:
** After Alex's release from prison he has many, but a truly epic one for him is when he gets rescued from an attack by two coppers. Said coppers {{spoiler|are some of his old gang members.}} [[It Got Worse]].
** After being carried into the writer's home by the bodyguard, and explaining to him what had happened, the writer suddenly exclaimed "I know you!" But it's because he recognized Alex's picture in the papers that morning, rather then recognizing him as the rapist of his wife.
* [[Only One Name]]: Alex's last name is never given in the book.
* [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: Alex and his gang do this to Billyboy's gang (not out of disapproval for their attempted rape, but just to hurt Billyboy's gang). Alex is on the receiving end of a brutal beatdown (and implied ''rape'') when he encounters Dim and George after they've become police officers.
* [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]]: "Ho, ho, ho! Well, if it isn't fat stinking billy goat Billy Boy in poison! How art thou, thou globby bottle of cheap, stinking chip oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if ya have any yarbles, ya eunuch jelly thou!"
* [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone]]: Alex and his father dream events that eventually come true, albeit in a roundabout way in Alex's case.
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{{reflist}}
{{Top 100 Banned Books 2010s}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Lit Fic]]
[[Category:The Sixties]]
[[Category:Trope Makers]]
[[Category:A Clockwork Orange]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1960s]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
[[Category:Cult Classic]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clockwork Orange, A (novel)}}
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