Anthony Burgess’ 1962 book A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian coming of age story that presents a society controlled by a totalitarian government set on making its citizens obedient by essentially turning them into robots. The story is told through the lens of Alex, the story’s fifteen year old antihero and protagonist, who is the leader of an all boy teenage street gang who he calls his “droogs.” The gang has even invented their own language called “Nadsat” as a way of communicating among each other. With his friends, Alex participates in vicious violent and criminal acts from which they derive pleasure. He is eventually captured and experimented on by the government. Though Burgess felt A Clockwork Orange was one of his worst works, I’ll have to disagree and say that a couple of aspects of his novel makes it one of the best books I’ve ever read. What sets A Clockwork Orange apart from other coming of age stories is that Alex does …show more content…
Alex is eventually imprisoned for a crime he commits and during the length of his stay, undergoes a treatment called the “Ludovico Technique” that would rid him of all urges to participate in criminal activity. While this treatment works to rid Alex of his need to commit criminal acts, it also rids him of the ability to listen to the beauty that came from his favorite composer Beethoven. Alex is so negatively affected by this change in such a unique and significant part of what makes him thrive as an individual, he wishes for nothing but to be normal again, “Do I find myself able to sloshy the old Choral Symphony without being sick once more? Can I live like a normal jeezny again?”(158). I agree with Burgess in that it is much better to accept the individual than to try and try to change them to fit a particular