IX Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2017

Anthony burgess – was an english writer and composer. From relatively modest beginnings in a catholic family in manchester, he eventually became one of the best known english literary figures of the latter half of the twentieth century.

A. Burgess was predominantly a comic writer, his dystopian satire a clockwork orange remains his best known novel. In 1971 it was adapted into a highly controversial film by stanley kubrick, which burgess said was chiefly responsible for the popularity of the book. Burgess produced numerous other novels, including the enderby quartet, and earthly powers, regarded by most critics as his greatest novel. Burgess also composed over 250 musical works; he sometimes claimed to consider himself as much a composer as an author, although he enjoyed considerably more success in writing.

One of my favorite english novel definitely is a clockwork orange by anthony burgess. This is a dystopian novel, published in 1962. The action of the book takes place in a near future english society where thriving a subculture of extreme youth violence.

The main protagonist, alex , is a 15-year-old tenager who leads his gang on a night of opportunistic, random "ultra-violence", which includes his friends – dim, georgie, and pete.

Alex begins his narrative from the korova (their favorite milk-bar), where the boys sit around drinking. When alex and his gang leave the bar, they commit crimes such as mugging, robbery, a gang fight, auto theft, breaking and entering, and rape. They made really terrible things. And one day they break into an old woman’s house. She calls the police, and before alex can get away, dim hits him in the eye with a chain and runs away with the others. The police apprehend alex and take him to the station, where he later learns that the woman he beat and raped during the earlier robbery has died.

Alex is sentenced to fourteen years in prison. At first, prison is difficult for him, but became easier. And after fighting with and killing a cellmate, alex is selected as the first candidate for an experimental treatment called ludovico’s technique, a form of brainwashing that incorporates associative learning. The process takes two weeks to complete, after which the mere thought of violence has the power to make alex ill. It worked, but soon alex finds he’s not only harmless but also defenseless, as his earlier victims begin to take revenge on him. Alex begins his narrative from the korova (their favorite milk-bar), where the boys sit around drinking. When alex and his gang leave the bar, they commit crimes such as mugging, robbery, a gang fight, auto theft, breaking and entering, and rape. They made really terrible things. And one day they break into an old woman’s house. She calls the police, and before alex can get away, dim hits him in the eye with a chain and runs away with the others. The police apprehend alex and take him to the station, where he later learns that the woman he beat and raped during the earlier robbery has died.

Alex is sentenced to fourteen years in prison. At first, prison is difficult for him, but became easier. And after fighting with and killing a cellmate, alex is selected as the first candidate for an experimental treatment called ludovico’s technique, a form of brainwashing that incorporates associative learning. The process takes two weeks to complete, after which the mere thought of violence has the power to make alex ill. It worked, but soon alex finds he’s not only harmless but also defenseless, as his earlier victims begin to take revenge on him. So it turns out that alex gets into man's house, whose wife he raped (and she died after this) in former time, but the man does not recognize him.

This man, f. Alexander, is a political dissident. When he hears alex’s story, he thinks he can use alex to incite public outrage against the state. He asks alex to make several public appearances. Alex, however, is tired of being exploited for other people’s schemes. Men remembered alex and locked him in an apartment and blast classical music through the wall, hoping to drive alex to suicide so they can blame the government.

Alex out of the window, but the fall doesn’t kill him. While he lies in the hospital, unconscious, a political struggle ensues, but the current administration survives. State doctors undo ludovico’s technique and restore alex’s old vicious self in exchange for alex’s endorsement. Back to normal, alex assembles a new gang and engages in the same behavior as he did before prison, but he soon begins to tire of a life of violence. After running into his old friend pete, who is now married and living a normal life, alex decides that such a life is what he wants for himself. His final thoughts are of his future son.

Some people consider that the importance of free will for the individual is the major theme of a clockwork orange. Burgess immediately treats the reader to an array of events that suggest why free will is dangerous. Unhampered by law-enforcement, alex and his friends are free to do what they will - which notably involves harming others.

But as for me, the idea i like in this book is its main question: can a man be really good if he can not do something evil, i mean, he just has no choice? After reading it has something to think about and look around.

About genre of this novel, well,the beauty of a clockwork orange is that it has its feet on four boats: dystopian novel, coming-of-age story, horror flick, and political satire. Arguably, there's a fifth philosophical commentary boat that could also claim admission. From the top: it is a dystopian novel because it takes place in the future, and everything is dark, eerie, violent, and headed down a sad and non-utopian path. It is a coming-of-age story because of the trials and transformation alex endures. The horror aspect of the work cannot be clearer amidst all the beating, teeth-plucking, eye-gouging, mugging, and raping that occurs. The satiric aspect comes through in the novel's political commentary. Finally, amidst all that debate about moral choice, free will, personal freedom, and behavioral modification, burgess conveys a real anti-totalitarian message in this novel.

The book contains many words in a slang called nadsat. It is a mix of modified slavic words, rhyming slang, derived russian (like baboochka), and words invented by burgess himself. For instance, these terms have the following meanings in nadsat: droog = friend; korova = cow; Gulliver ("golova") = head; malchick or malchickiwick = boy; soomka = sack or bag; bog = god; khorosho ("horroshow") = good; prestoopnick = criminal; rooka ("rooker") = hand; cal = crap; veck ("chelloveck") = man or guy; litso = face; malenky = little; and so on. Figuring Out what alex means with each term is a feat in itself, and it takes a few chapters for even the most astute reader to get a firm grip on the language. For example, "there was me, that is alex, and my three droogs, that is pete, georgie, and dim, dim being really dim, and we sat in the korova milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry.»

Some words are not derived from anything, but just easy to guess, for example, "in-out, in-out" or "the old in-out" means sexual intercourse in this case. I think using slang stresses alex`s age and social status. It makes a book real and takes the reader inside.

Dialogue in this book is very important in that is gives the reader insight into the class and age of the person speaking. Alex and his ‘droogs’ use nadsat, whereas the adults and sophisticated people in the novel speak normal english. This fact, however, is not explicitly stated, so the reader must use the dialogue as clues to determine the age and class of the person speaking. An early example of the differences that are portrayed through dialogue is:

“’an old man of your age, brother,’ i said, and i started to rip up the book i’d got, and the others did the same…they starry prof type began to creech: ‘but those are not mine, those are the property of the municipality, this is sheer wantonness and vandal work,’ or some such slovos”. By looking at this conversation closely, we can see that not everyone in this future society speaks like alex and his friends do.

There are a lot of symbolism and allegory. For example, in the book everyone drinks milk at the korova milkbar. Alex drinks milk with almost every meal. May be this mean that the milk-drinking teenagers are something like babies associated – unsophisticated and helpless.

Also, known as "cancers" in nadsat, cigarettes are what the characters puff on when they need to appear cool or nonchalant (in the case of the "modern youth"), when they are being philosophical or anxious (in the case of the prison chaplain and rex, the cop driving dim and billyboy's getaway squad car), or just delinquent (the ten-year-old girls alex rapes, all the kids at the bars, as well as alex's entourage). What is interesting is how burgess calls them "cancers," obviously to incite the negative connotation.

I think these details make the book so special, actual and inimitable.

Besides this book does not overtly discuss gender roles, but they are still very present in the novel. Women are always seen as victims of society’s problems and never the cause of these problems. After studying the 1960’s and society’s views of women and their roles in society,it is interesting for me, why burgess treated women in such a way in his novel.

Moreover, the ending, or the 21st chapter of the book, provides closure to the book for some readers. In fact, this is the only chapter where our protagonist-narrator experiences growth, or more profoundly, personal transformation. In fact, we dare say that given his newfound discontent with violence and violent music, and interest in forging a family, alex is all grown up. Structurally, it balances out the other two parts of the book, each with seven chapters. Thematically, it comes full-circle, starting off with the same question and description combination as chapter one in part one of the book, but closing the loop with alex rejecting the person he was at the commencement of his journey and looking forward to a new kind of life.

The illusion versus reality theme in a clockwork orange is not often spoken of, but is, nevertheless, one of the novel's more prevalent themes. One might say alex's whole life is an illusion, or that the society exists only as an illusion, but a clockwork orange also reminds us that sometimes illusion is reality. Alex has vivid dreams throughout the book, and each one of them proves to be prophetic. In the beginning of a clockwork orange, alex dreams of j.s. Bach, and somehow connects it with home. His dream then wanders to the book he had seen at home--the book which describes his own future hell--the book entitled a clockwork orange. Once in jail, alex dreams of beethoven's blessed ninth, but just as he starts to enjoy it, the music begins to say nasty things to him, a vision of his later reaction to the music as a result of his treatment. Alex has a similar dream after he finds out about the treatment and decides he wants to take part in it. He is playing in beethoven's orchestra, but his instrument is his own flesh. Whenever he hears the music, he feels mad and sick. After alex's treatment, he lives out his first day as a machine, goes to sleep, then wakes up the next morning and says, "i had a real horrorshow night's sleep, brothers, with no dreams at all". Because alex's reality as a human has ended, the illusions which have guided him through humanity have also ended. Alex has lost his visionary abilities to symbolize his loss of the part of him that was him. After alex is hypnotized out of treatment, he dreams again, this time of feeling clean, whole, hopeful.

Finally, A clockwork orange is one of the most complex books of our era. It is also one of the most studied, and one of the most misunderstood. Burgess used his abilities as a linguist to spin a futuristic tale of violence and reformation. Our subconscious mind wants to give alex the freedom to kill and rape, while our conscious mind understands society's need for well-behaved citizens. A clockwork orange speaks to the philosopher, the theologist, and the psychologist in all of us, and its message becomes more relevant with each new year.

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