Last post on A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange has been one of the most interesting novels i've read. After finishing the novel, i've realized the similarity A Clockwork Orange has with George Orwell's 1984. Both novels take place in dystopian dictatorships. In both novels there are clear distinctions with the government and the people. The citizens are denied their rights and freedoms. After such thinking, I searched on google thinking that there had to be some kind of criticism about this. In this article there a few points worthy of mentioning. Both protagonists are rehabilitated by the government. In 1984, Winston Smith eventually ends up loving the party and supporting Big Brother through means of torture. The government even turned Winston and Julia against each other. In A Clockwork Orange, Alex goes through similar brainwashing sessions along with torture to be the showcase of a new method of fixing people's behavior. The government plays a huge role in both novels. Big Brother and the Party oppresses their citizens but makes it so the citizens think they are being treated well. The government in A Clockwork Orange attempt to cover up their mistakes they did with Alex when he tried to commit suicide. After a while reading that article I wondered if societies like from the novels actually existed in reality.

Considering I need to do an A project I thought I would conduct research on communism and dictatorships and relate it to A Clockwork Orange. I skimmed through this website on the principles of communism. Communism is mainly credited to Karl Marx who is shown in the picture to the right. Communism is an economic system that is usually closely knit with dictatorship where the government controls the capital, unlike a capitalist society like we have in the United States. A doctor would make as much as a landscaper in a communist society. The reason why I think these types of systems of government relates to A Clockwork Orange is because if they were to brainwash or torture their own citizens I wouldn't be surprised. The citizens of North Korea are already being oppressed by Kim Jong-il. Being South Korean there are so many stories in Korean newspapers how the citizens of North Korea suffer. Many of them are famished and live in extreme poverty areas. If you guys are interested what goes on and how you can help there's an organization called L.I.N.K which stands for Liberty in North Korea. Here's the organizations website.

There's not much left to blog about a Clockwork orange...

...but I eventually just typed "a clockwork orange anthony burgess" on google and looked for some articles to spark some ideas. After a while I found this article that goes into a bit of plot but summarizes the themes that are emphasized by the book, followed by the author's opinions and themes that are emphasized by the movie. The author of the book does nothing but praise how well the movie stayed loyal to the novel.

"Stanley Kubrick's film version of 'A Clockwork Orange' is one of the greatest translations of a book to the cinema screen."

Although It's taking me longer than I had initially expected to finish the novel, reading this article makes me want to just do it; however, it doesn't give me the great motivation needed to actually go through and finish the book promptly.

After some more thought about this post I went back to google and found a book review website that only has such high praise for the novel. I don't understand what is so great about a clockwork orange. Sure it's one of the classical satirical novels that one should read, but I'm just not that into it. Perhaps is the language Burgess created. Nadsat. Everyone gives Burgess an almost genius title for writing a book written with a new teenage slang in a futuristic dystopian society, but honestly, I think I could have made up a few words and slapped them in a book. I'm not saying that the way Burgess forced the reader to actually follow along with his language by context clues should not be acknowledged, but to me it seems that some people seem to like the fact that he just invented his own language (which i'm sure a lot of you did when you were younger). For me, it's not that he made his own language, with fused teenage slang and Russian, but the way he used it. It's obvious that of the central points of the novel is to bash on communism, and by using a new language combined with Russian, it just adds to the satirical genius.

Overall I'm enjoying the novel in a slow process. HOPEFULLY I can finish it up this week.

How messed up are Alex and his droogs...

So far I've finished Part I of a Clockwork Orange. One thing that stands out the most is the disrespect and cruelty Alex and his "droogs" have towards their elders. As I said in my last post, I grew up in a Korean household which swayed my opinion of such debauchery. Ever since I was young it was embedded in my head to address my elders (even someone who is only one year older) with respect and obedience. Reading about how Alex and his "droogs" beat old men and women without a conscience made me curious about elderly abuse in our society. After doing some research via Google, I found some interesting day. According to this website World Elderly Abuse Awareness day was on June 15th, 2007. It's pretty sad how there is a day dedicated to elderly abuse. Although the majority of elderly abuse comes from neglect, there is still a great number of physical and even sexual abuse towards elders. If you want to read some information about elderly abuse download this pdf. The pdf consists of statistical information about elderly abuse. It's pretty hard to imagine your grandparents or elders abused in elderly homes with over 1 million reports of elderly abuse (with the majority coming from retirement homes). Check it out if you are interested enough...

In other news, I really want to watch the movie version of a Clockwork Orange, but unfortunately I'm only only on part II. While researching about elderly abuse I found this picture from the movie related to the matter. You can just see the misery the man must be going through after being beat up by a bunch of malchicks.