Book report : A Clockwork Orange

When he was young, Anthony Burgess wanted to be a composer. Unfortunately, he wasn't accepted in music at university because of his poor grades. He studied in English language and literature instead and he became a teacher in the British colonial service. He travelled to many places, but he grew bored and lied saying that he had a brain tumour and only a year to live. He got discharged and he became a full-time writer. It was a this moment that he wrote his famous novel A clockwork Orange.

A clockwork Orange is the story of a young man called Alex. He lives in what could be London in the near-future . The novel could be separated in three parts. In the first part, Alex has a life of debauchery with his friend. They rampage houses at night to hurt, rape and steal from the inhabitants. They take great pleasure in their ultra-violence and Alex revels in the 9th symphony of Beethoven. But then, Alex's friends grow irritated of the way he treats them. He roughs them up a bit and convinces them to steal into a old woman's house. Alex enters alone in the house through a window and beats the old woman unconscious before going to open the door. When he does, they attack him and leave him incapacitated for the policemen who were on their way. The old lady died from Alex's treatment and he got charged for murder.

The second part is when he's in prison. He was condemned for fourteen years. After two years, he hears of an experimental rehabilitation technique that would release him out of prison immediately after. It is an aversion therapy called the Ludovico technique. It consists of making the patient look at very violent scenes of battle, mugging, stealing and rape while being under the influence of a drug that creates a sharp nauseating response to these scenes. The soundtrack for those scenes was Beethoven's 9th symphony. Alex realizes then that he won't be able to listen to Ludwig anymore. After the treatment, Alex is placed in various violent situations in front of a public to demonstrate that he is cured of his violent side. Here, a priest gets frustrated because Alex is not being non-violent by choice. He must not be violent, because if he does, he feels he will vomit. He remained totally unchanged from the therapy; it was only his body that was trained to react to certain situations.

The final part is when he is release in the society. Unfortunately, his old victims attack him because he isn't able to defend himself anymore. Two police officers, who turned out to be two of his friends, beat him and leave him for dead at the towns outskirt. Alex will then walk aimlessly until he arrives at an house. He doesn't realize that this house is one of the many he had broke into with his friend to rape a woman. The writer living there doesn't recognize him as the one who raped his now dead wife and he wants to use him as a poster child for the victims of the fascist government. Unfortunately, the writer will recognize Alex for what he has done to him and he will torture him by locking him up in a room where Beethoven's 9th symphony was playing. Alex can't take it and he attempt to kill himself by jumping out of the window. However, he will not die. He'll wake up in a hospital from where he'll return to live with his parents. The government reversed the therapy because it was bad publicity for them. Alex will make another gang like the one he had at the beginning of the book, but he will soon tire of it after seeing one of his old friend leading a peaceful life with his wife and children. He saw then that he could be happy while leading another life than the one of debauchery he had.

A Clockwork Orange is a very interesting novel for it's moral about good and bad: It's one thing not to do anything bad, but it's another to do good.