Anthony Burgess Novel a Clockwork Orange

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The use of physical decor in the film connects art and violence as well as the musical score, this connection is important as it shows the similarity between the two different concepts. The expression of art shows a desire to self define- to be individual. Society runs counterintuitive to this urge in an attempt to normalize individuals bring them closer to one set of ideas. In the same way art runs counterintuitive to society. It is a philosophical battle between individualism and unity. Soheback argues that the violence expressed in A Clockwork Orange functions the same way as art, that they “spring from the same source; they are both expressions of the individual, egotistic, vital, and non-institutionalized man.” (Soheback 7) This theme is touched upon briefly by Burgess in his novel in the way that Beethoven incites Alex’s violence and in the way the 9th is weaponized after his treatment. Kubrick however extrapolates on this theme through his use of decor and music showing that art and violence “do not oppose each other, but, indeed, are integral parts of the same urge to personal expression and individual preeminence.” (Soheback 7) Art and violence are both behaviors that work against society’s attempt to reform individuals- to change out the organic living parts of a personality for clockwork.

In Deviant Subjects in Foucault and A Clockwork Orange: Congruent Critigues of Criminological Constructions Of Subjectivity, Pat J. Gehrke discusses the clockwork metaphor and how from it “nightmares of social control and behavior modification” (Gehrke 1) have stemmed from it. In this light A Clockwork Orange is very thematically similar to other literature such as 1984 or even something like The Manchurian Candidate and calls into question absolute morality and the ethics of human sciences. Gehrke takes the example of behavioral modification as seen A Clockwork Orange and gives other examples from real life that echo the methodology, themes, and problems with the treatment as seen in the film. He describes treatments carried out in Florida and California on prisoners. Baring stunning resemblance to A Clockwork Orange “It is as if someone ran a giant performance of the film.” (Gehrke 11) Like the prison minister in the film said, choice is instrumental in moral. Only in having the capacity to do evil does the choice to do good have any impact, and likewise vice versa. Removing Alex’s ability to choose between right and wrong- or more accurately- socially accepted and socially rejected behaviors “he becomes an automaton, his actions ruled by his conditioning.” (Gehrke 9) He has become the model member of society doing no harm to anyone but at the cost of his human nature.

Without a capacity for violence Alex is left at the mercy of his former victims. The homeless old man beats him his former gang members nearly drown him and he is driven to suicide by the writer. Kubrick shows the portrait of the ideal citizen, yet “as the ideal citizen, Alex is their ideal victim.” (Gehrke 10) He is put into a position of ultimate subjugation where he can not fight back or act in any meaningful way to assert his influence. However after his suicide Alex having embarrassed the government is given a new way to manifest his violence. He is payed a visit by the Minister of the Interior and as they talk Alex gets the Minister to feed him his dinner. This is a mutual power relationship. It is worth mentioning that Gehrke indicates the use of violence as the precursor and sustainer of authority, recognizing that certain forms of violence are legitimized by society while others are rejected.

The violence that is accepted by society is that which is acted out on people who are destructive of societal values. It’s the difference between a criminal and a citizen. Not if one uses violence “but of the capacity to conform that violence to accepted methods.” (Gehrke 12) It’s not an objective distinction between good and evil but rather the morals dictated by societal norms. The use of powerful techniques such as the aversion therapy shown in A Clockwork Orange is a slippery slope because “anything socially perceived as deviant can become an illness subject to the legitimacy and authority of scientific cure.” (Gehrke 12) As seen with the suffering Alex undergoes at the hands of the Ludovico treatment it can’t be emphasized enough that “classical conditioning removes from Alex the capacity for criminal action, though it cannot affect the drive.” (Gehrke 8) It reduces a fully fledged human being- capable of choice and moral- to a machine purely based on stimulus/response.

There are others that do not ascribe such a profound meaning to A Clockwork Orange such as Jennifer Kirby who in A New Gang in Town: Kubrick’s A Clock Work Orange as Adaptation and Subversion of the 1950s Juvenile Delinquent Cycle states that the film is most akin to films like The Wild One (1953), Blackboard Jungle (1955), and Rebel Without a Cause (1955), that were high action and almost always ended in reformation of the rowdy young protagonist. However, A Clockwork Orange is only like this for the first act and focuses much more heavily on reformation that Alex goes through and the consequences the procedure has. That is not to say that there are not elements that are reminiscent of these films in A Clockwork Orange, Kirby’s theory that the use of classical film is supposed to mirror the obsession that 50s youth culture had is sound and her explanation of the gratuitous violence as a satirization of the violence present in those films is plausible. However Kirby reduces the film down to just a piece of satire when it is very evidently much more than that.

A Clockwork Orange is an intense ride of ultraviolence, but only for the first act. The significance of the film lies within what happens as a result of it and in the almost subliminal messages Kubrick tries to add into the production. Most importantly the film sends a message about violence and its place in society. As the system uses it to suppress deviant behavior individuals use it to strain against conformation. It is a system of balance that in the world of A Clockwork Orange is disturbed by the use of profoundly powerful and unnatural- albeit fictional, methods. But the real world should be weary of similar treatments because they cure the symptoms not the cause. A cure for violence will by extension remove the humanity from being human and replace the organic with a clockwork mechanism easily controlled any will beside your own. The Man’s trying to keep you down, yo.

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Works Cited

Gehrke, Pat J. "Deviant Subjects In Foucault And A Clockwork Orange: