Youth Culture In A Clockwork Orange

In A Clockwork Orange, the dystopian England envisioned by Burgess serves to exaggerate the evils of both youth and adult society as a way to highlight the futility and the recklessness of youth rebellion. Given that the interactions between the young and the grown up words is one of the primary reasons for the development of rebellious youth cultures, the most effective way of communicating the opposing worldviews of both sides is to take them to their logical extremes. Youth culture is not just carefree and naive, but anarchic and infantile. Adults are not just reactionary and strict; they are antipathetic and authoritarian. It is this extreme clash between the generations that serves to perpetuate and even encourage the rise of youth counterculture

Nadsat, being made up of British slang mixed with Russian vocabulary, suggests influences of communism to the conservative ruling class (Sumner). While nobody outside of the teenage world can understand the meaning of the words themselves, the ideas of opposition and hostility to authority are still conveyed by the language, allowing the gap between generations to widen. Dr. Brodsky even refers to nadsat as “the dialect of the tribe” (Burgess 124), suggesting that the speakers of the language are a separate entity from the rest of civilized society. But this description of a teen “tribe” can also be used to invoke a sense that the teen community is tight knit and familial. The dialect reinforces a sense of comfort and belonging between speakers, allowing teens to become more dependent on each other and less dependent on figures of authority. This sense of community and exclusivity also extends beyond the text, to the reader themselves, who will eventually begin to feel a part of the “tribe” as the teens rip, rob, and rape without remorse. But when the teens engage in acts of

This fact can be apparent in the first couple pages of the book, where the young Alex and his gang enjoy glasses of milk at the Korova Milkbar. Milk, often the first source of nourishment for newly born children, is symbolic of innocence, youthfulness, and most importantly, growth. But the milk served at the Milkbar is milk “with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom” (Burgess 3), milk served with stimulants and hallucinogenic drugs, which fuels the teen’s ultra-violent rampages through the night. Rather than being a fulfilling and nourishing drink for young children, the drug laced milk encourages harm and destruction. If milk is symbolic of youth, then the milk served at the Milkbar is symbolic of the corruption of youth. But the youths do not just enjoy the milk for its stimulating effects or its taste; they enjoy it for an escape from reality, from morality, from self (Davis). Feeling angst from living in such a dull and oppressive world, Alex and his gang take refuge in artificial stimulation as a source of fulfillment, and accept alterations to their mental states as a cure for monotony. But as a consequence of intentionally warping their morality and perception of the world and their lack of experience as responsible adults, Alex and his gang often fail to fully grasp the consequences of their violent actions (Davis).