Clockwork Orange Wrongness

“Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?” (Burgess 95). In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess suggests that man struggles with choice. Though it is those struggles and choices made from grappling that make man human. Their endeavor to create a right and a wrong is what separates them from animals. Burgess argues that man would no longer be human if their ability to choose is taken away. Anthony Burgess was born February 25, 1917 in Manchester, England to a mother, a father, and a sister (Anthony Burgess). Though it was only one year later that he lost both his sister and mother to influenza. Their death, his mother’s in particular, left a lasting impact on his life and later affected his writings. In 1922, four years later, Burgess’ father remarried to Margaret Dwyer, an unloving and spiteful woman who left scars on Burgess (41 Facts on Anthony Burgess). Burgess’ Catholic upbring along with a childhood marred with beatings and abuse caused him to escape with music. A passion he wanted to pursue in college

Burgess uses government suppression in his book to control the population (A Clockwork Orange Shmoop) and force society to behave. He has created Alex to “represent violence as an act of assertion, a positive force” (Dix) because Alex, in this sense, is the better of the people in society because he has his own will and freedom. Burgess has the government fix society’s problems and in doing so, has given them complete power over the people. Taken away is their free will and so society is no longer good, just people forced to be under fear of punishment. Alex is the rebel so even though he is evil at a moral standpoint, some argue is the good because he was chosen his own fate (A Clockwork Orange: Correction, Destiny, Good or Evil)