Allusions In A Clockwork Orange

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A Clockwork Orange, written by Anthony Burgess, deals with the essence of humanity and morality. Being difficult topics to grapple with, many turn to a religious perspective to inform their beliefs on these subjects. Burgess himself is a strongly Catholic individual and this ideology shows through in the ideas presented by A Clockwork Orange. The book contains a number of allusions to the Bible, Jesus and God’s intentions for humanity. These religious references build upon each other to develop Burgess’ notion that God created humans with free will, and how this leaves humankind flawed and prone to evil tendences. Though, despite this, humanity’s free will is the most important thing to both God and humanity itself. Burgess sees humans as beings …show more content…

Ironically, the foundation of Burgess’ argument is laid towards the end of the book, on page 203. This allusion describes how God, or Bog as our anti-hero Alex calles him, is supervising everything that is happening and how he is holding events to their course. In this same page, Burgess, through Alex, describes people as being like wind up toys set in motion by God to bump into obstacles and find their path. Based on this passage, Burgess seems to believe that God set things in motion in a purposeful way, and that he created people with free will so that they could go out and exercise it and find their way in life. Using allusions to God’s omnipotence, Burgess lays out his belief that it is God’s intention for humans to have free …show more content…

When encountered early in the book, the implication of this religious imagery is not fully apparent. However, once viewed in the context of the later Christian allusions found in A Clockwork Orange, it becomes clear that this is the proclamation of Burgess’ intent in this novel. Burgess views humanity as an organic thing, full of great potential to please God, and he sees the implication of conditioning, specifically, or more generally anything that would sap the essential ability of humans to choose, as a detriment to God’s