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ALEX DeLARGE, A DYSTOPIA MADE ADOLESCENT FLESHHow Does Alex DeLarge Reflect The Dystopian Context and Society Shown in “A

Clockwork Orange”?

INTRODUCTION

In the novel written by Anthony Burgess, as in the film produced and directed by Stanley

Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange evidences a remarkable dystopian context. As same as other

dystopian contexts and societies, this one is located in a not-so-distant fictional future

reflecting a wrong society, almost uninhabitable, where life is miserable and full of

mistakes and transgressions of every kind; especially the immoderation and abuse of

violence, drugs consumption and sex.

Burgess and Kubrick, instead of showing a perfect or ideal society, show a wrong

one, revealing the worst part of it. As a result, one can see it as the aim of the dystopian

context, exposing in a near future the failures of the contemporary society. Therefore, both

authors configured the dystopian context taking as a basis their current society and

predicting how the eventual society of that near future could be. Even thought they were

not totally accurate with physical aspects of the characters, one can see that in

psychological and behavioral ones, this dystopia could match absolutely with nowadays’

adolescents and even more, considering that the not-so-distant future they refer to, could

perfectly be our present1-2.

In order to be able to construct and evidence this dystopian context, possible to

adapt to any society, they particularly make of the society of A Clockwork Orange, the

worst society imaginable; and so they do with what compounds it: its members.

Clearly, Alex DeLarge, the main character, is one of them. Alex, for having an

unstable adolescent character will become into the ideal and most reachable target of all of

those faults of the society he lives in and will be the mean that these two wise men will take

1 Andersen, Soren. “Frightful Futures / With a Uniformly Grim Outlook on Where We’re Headed, Sci-Fi Movies Have Become Scarier Than Any Ghoul-Filled Film about Ghosts and Vampires”. The News Tribune. Oct 31, 1995. p. SL.3. ERIC Web 19 Oct. 2008.2 Bullen, Elizabeth, Parsons, Elizabeth. Dystopian Visions of Global Capitalism: Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines and M.T Anderson’s Feed. Children’s Literature in Education. 2007. p. 127 -139. ERIC Web 25 Nov. 2008.

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advantage of and use, in order to achieve their goal and be able to show and reflect the

dystopian context3-4.

Lamentably, this society is not only a proper vision and situation of a fiction future

of a novel or film, it is a vision and a reality that can be suitable to this society. According

to how things are, it can be the reality we are living in5-6.

As a result, the aim of this extended essay is not only to go beyond establishing how

does Alex DeLarge configures and reflects the dystopian context shown in A Clockwork

Orange, it is also to make people conscious, especially adolescents, who are the main

characters of our time and are the ones targeted to realize how it is possible to mend,

renovate and transcend our society.

3 Andersen, Soren. “Frightful Futures / With a Uniformly Grim Outlook on Where We’re Headed, Sci-Fi Movies Have Become Scarier Than Any Ghoul-Filled Film about Ghosts and Vampires”. Op.Cit.4 Bullen, Elizabeth, Parsons, Elizabeth. Dystopian Visions of Global Capitalism: Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines and M.T Anderson’s Feed. Children’s Literature in Education. Op. Cit. 5 Andersen, Soren. “Frightful Futures / With a Uniformly Grim Outlook on Where We’re Headed, Sci-Fi Movies Have Become Scarier Than Any Ghoul-Filled Film about Ghosts and Vampires”. Op.Cit. 6 Bullen, Elizabeth, Parsons, Elizabeth. Dystopian Visions of Global Capitalism: Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines and M.T Anderson’s Feed. Op.Cit.

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1. Which Dystopian Society?

The dystopian context shown in A Clockwork Orange is particularly outstanding due to the

character and function it has. This one is able to gather in just one context all the failures,

flaws and imperfections in a society. Besides, it reveals and put all of them in evidence

through young people in particular, who are the element of society that seems to be the

least guilty and the most apathetic about these kind of conflicts due to the fact that they are

just focused on themselves.

Also, with this context of dystopia, Burgess and Kubrick not only have the

objective, but also have the owe of putting in evidence every factor that makes of a society

the wrong one, even if it has to be in a very unexpected, direct and harsh way; not in order

to judge and denigrate it, but to make people react to what is happening and encourage

them to change and arrange each of these aspects, rather than ignoring them.

Starting from political aspects, it is possible to see that this society is oppressed by

the government and its domain, as far as reaching the point that government obtains

benefits of the community, instead of the community being benefited by the government. A

clear example is the scientific test that the government applied on Alex DeLarge for trying

to change his degenerated character and be pacified and adapted to live correctly in

society7; this configures the biggest act of taking advantage and abuse of power.

Although it is not deeply specified, the economic aspect is clearly influenced and

affected by capitalism and its correlated elements: globalization, consumption and

individualization; all of these terms are very associated, because one leads to the other. In

this sense, Alex is a victim of this system since he is constantly under the domain of the

globalization produced by capitalism. He is constantly forced to consume and to be selfish

and individualist8.

Probably, the most distinguished dystopian aspect of this whole context and society

is the social and, consequently, the cultural one, which is centered in young people. Society

7 Andersen, Soren. “Frightful Futures / With a Uniformly Grim Outlook on Where We’re Headed, Sci-Fi Movies Have Become Scarier Than Any Ghoul-Filled Film about Ghosts and Vampires”. Op.Cit. 8 Bullen, Elizabeth, Parsons, Elizabeth. Dystopian Visions of Global Capitalism: Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines and M.T Anderson’s Feed. Op.Cit.

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becomes a vehicle for the ‘expression of adolescent individuality’9, which leads mostly to

anarchy thus other related effects, such as violence, unsafe sex and consumption and abuse

of drugs. In other words a complete chaos and desolation10 that conducts to a frightful and

uncertain future. We are talking about a society, subdue to a ‘culture of violence’11, under

constant disrespect, fights, rapes, murders and other crimes, where the most important

subjects seem to be sex and violence12 and a society that has become ‘a cesspool of

violence and drug’ consumption13.

All of these aspects configure and reveal the hugest and shocking dystopian context,

where there is no hope and future is indeterminated and frightening. People does not longer

dream of having better lives and be part of a better society and world, they do nothing in

regard to the wretched situation for the reason that they do not believe in the fact that things

can be better. Moreover, they have already gotten used to live among the wrong conditions

of their dystopia14. It is a society with no values or moral believes, with no hope and no

happiness, a worthless society, where present is horrifying and future unimaginable.

2. Why Alex the Adolescent?

Adolescence is known as the transitional period between childhood and adulthood, and this

means changes of several types, which can be biological, psychological and/or social15. We

must deeply understand the significance and effects of these changes and also realize how

they contribute for making Alex the mean to reflect his society. This kid is an adolescent

9 Tyrrell Jr, Emmett. Sea of Cultural Chaos; Second Edition. Washington Times. April 30, 1999. p.p A.18. ERIC Web 13 Nov. 2008.10 Andersen, Soren. “Frightful Futures / With a Uniformly Grim Outlook on Where We’re Headed, Sci-Fi Movies Have Become Scarier Than Any Ghoul-Filled Film about Ghosts and Vampires”. Op.Cit.11 Ibid.12 Lambirth, A. From Horror to the Sublime. The Spectator. November 26, 2005. ERIC Web 17 Nov. 2008.13 Andersen, Soren. “Frightful Futures / With a Uniformly Grim Outlook on Where We’re Headed, Sci-Fi Movies Have Become Scarier Than Any Ghoul-Filled Film about Ghosts and Vampires”. Op.Cit. 14 Andersen, Soren. “Frightful Futures / With a Uniformly Grim Outlook on Where We’re Headed, Sci-Fi Movies Have Become Scarier Than Any Ghoul-Filled Film about Ghosts and Vampires”. Op.Cit.15 U.S. Congress, Office of technology Assessment. Adolescent Health. (Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1991. p. 3, 24.

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who is in a period of metamorphosis and sudden changes that make him unstable and

vulnerable to fit his society.

All physical modifications, psychological and social changes during adolescence are

quite related to constant behavioral alterations that have the aim of defining the identity of

the person16. Adolescents are usually looking forward for building their personality and

own selves, to what their configure as likes and believes. Additionally they are getting to

know the world and trying to achieve success, in order to prove the rest of the world wrong.

They also want to be taken into account, and be seen as fundamental parts of

society, that’s why they impose themselves, through their ideals, defending them totally.

According to this, adolescents try also to prevent committing mistakes that could affect

their future life, because although they seem not to care, they own a susceptible ego that

must be feed with success and recognizability.

These is also related to their strong appearance, that means they pretend to be tough,

wanting to impose themselves and defending their beliefs passionately. However all this

strength, is mainly their really inside part, the fear they have of being rejected, of being

harmed and precisely, their vulnerability and weak character.

This is what we have on the main character of A Clockwork Orange, Alex De Large,

an adolescent that is experiencing this stage in his life, with all of the changes and

incoherence it brings with it. As same as others adolescents, he is weak inside but his

appearance shows him a strong man. He is ambitious and wants to prove he is always right.

Yet, usually adolescent conflicts are supposed to be fought with support of the

family and in an adequate way to make them remain on age troubles and not completely

psychological and personal issues. Sadly, this is not the case of Alex DeLarge, he has not

what he demands to continue growing and overcome this moment of his life. Because of

this, he is forced to look for easy ways out, where to find what he lacks of, like his music,

drugs, ‘Nadsat’17 and specially ultra-violence. Also he follows a model of peer pressure

16 Ibid. p. 21.17 “Nadsat, a Russified version of English, was meant to muffle the raw response we expect from pornography. It turns the book into a linguistic adventure. People preferred the film because they are scared, rightly, of language.”- Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. Op. Cit.

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with his ‘droogs’18, as same as consumption, political views and religious conflicts,

elements that help to configure the dystopian context in A Clockwork Orange.

3. “What’s It Going To Be Then, Eh?”19. The Answer To How Does Alex DeLarge

Reflect The Dystopian Context and Society Shown In A Clockwork Orange.

It is fundamental to recapture and evoke constantly that question. Alex is a victim of his

society, he is continuously under its influence and manipulation, and has been affected by

it. In this way, he is a reflection of what society is, because it is society the responsible of

molding him, the right example of what society makes of people. This is why Alex is not

the ideal adolescent or even the person who is expected as a main character, because his

context and society are not either. He reflects a bad society and exposes openly all of its

failures.

It is also very important to analyze every factor and aspect of Alex, taking as a basis

every feature of his personality, in order to be able to discover and understand what do they

tell about society and in which way they contribute to show the dystopian context. Since the

most notable, irrelevant and superficial detail, to the most inner and complex one, it is

possible to see in Alex DeLarge the reflection of a total dystopian context, proper of a

dysfunctional society.

3.1 The DeLarge Family

In the first place it is fundamental to analyze a certain factor of Alex’s life that in

the life of any person, especially an adolescent, is determinant and maybe, the most

18 Droog (Nadsat term): refers to friend, have its origins in violent friend. Ibid. 19 Ibid. p. 1.

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important: the family20. Neither in the novel, nor in the book, it is determined the existence

of siblings or other relatives of Alex, although the role of his parents is totally clarified.

Although Alex’s parents seem to care and be interest and concern for their son and

apparently are great parents: “You've got a good home here, good loving parents, you've

got not too bad of a brain.”21. Alex’s parents do not do anything to be informed of what

happens in their son’s life, be part of it or to known what he is missing. Alex’s parents do

not have a significant presence in Alex’s life. They do not seem to make sure that they are

raising correctly their son. Their intervention and significance on Alex’s life is poor, almost

worthless.

It is clear that parents constitute, to their children, an example that must be

followed, to the extent that children coincide with their parents’ values and beliefs22; but

this is not the case of Alex, because he does not receive from his parents the complete

attention he needs, neither the support, education or example he could follow. Parents must

provide a positive influence and “serve as role model to their children”23, but Alex’s parents

are not even taken into account by him; they do not even constitute an influence or

prototype to take into consideration, to follow or respect.

In fact, parents must apply authority on their children and become a respectable

figure to them, at the same time they should allow the adolescent’s individuality,

independence and autonomy, while they are considered as friends and trustful witnesses to

improve their children’s development, growing and life24. The problem appears when

Alex’s parents do not take any of these roles, they are not authority figures for Alex, and

instead of allowing his autonomy and freedom, they are too permissive, lax and indifferent.

All these factors are hugely reflected on the behavior of Alex and they almost could

explain and justify him; it is possible to affirm that he is trying to catch their attention or is

just unconsciously and unintentionally enjoying of the freedom and absence of authority

20 U.S. Congress, Office of technology Assessment. Adolescent Health. (Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services). Op. Cit. p. 3.21 Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. Op. Cit. p. 39.22 U.S. Congress, Office of technology Assessment. Adolescent Health. (Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services). Op. Cit. p. 38.23 Ibid. p. 37.24 Ibid. p. 39.

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and importance they give to him, obviously in the wrong way, but it is not correct to judge

and blame him because he has not being guide correctly.

The DeLarge parents could be considered as the poor victims of Alex’s bad and

terrible behavior: “'I've heard all about you, boy. I know what you've done, breaking the

hearts of your poor grieving parents (…)”25, but requires and deep and objective analyze to

find out who is the real victim. Even though Alex’s parents have faced all the consequences

of his bad attitude and behavior, probably the victim is Alex, because he has not been

educated and supported as it should be.

The DeLarge family has a null communication and Alex’s parents do not try or even

desire to participate in their son’s life and he does not want to be part of theirs. It is so low

the significance and esteem they have for each other, that they have considered as an option

replacing Alex while he was in jail: " ‘This is Joe,’ (…). ‘He lives here now’.”26, was the

phrase Alex heard from his mom, when he returned form jail. This phrase had the purpose

of explaining the presence of a stranger in his house, who took the role of the son of the

family.

This make us question the society of Alex and all of these issues that reflect a

dystopian context, where the family, the basis and most important element of society, is not

longer existing.

3.2 Education

Education is probably one of the most valuable possessions a human being can own;

it feeds, exalts and maintains alive the soul and mind of anyone and makes of the person a

better one. An educated and cultured person is able to react properly to any situation and

response to society and became a useful member for it.

Schools have an essential function on adolescent’s life. In first instance, they

complement the education and formation of family and also maintain adolescents focused

25 Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. Op. Cit. p. 134.26 Ibib. p. 134.

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on enriching, inspiring and stimulating activities that contribute to their development, rather

than expending time on idle activities that are malignant to them, like delinquency, abuse of

substances, etc.27. Certainly, the function of school on adolescents’ lives is favorable and

almost indispensable.

“(…) I thought I would not go to school.”28, said Alex after a long night of pleasure

activities and adding he would better be sleeping for more time and then enjoy of a leisure

or free day. The gravity of this episode is concerning, it is not only the fact that Alex

skipped school, or that their parents did nothing regarding to it. It is the fact that the labor

of education would be incomplete and would allow the introduction of Alex to activities

that are not useful to him. Furthermore, if Alex does not have the required education and

guidance from his parents and neither from school, how would he be educated?

The situation is distressing, these features show us a society where adolescents,

who are the future and the potential adult members that would head and lead society, are

not educated, neither at school, nor at home, and instead of getting prepared to face

correctly their definitive role on society, they are investing their free time on activities that

does not provide anything good to them; t is possible to see a complete dystopian context

and society, that not even knows what to expect of the upcoming time and has a hopeless

future.

3.3 Mental Health and Behavior

During the adolescence stage, due to the significant amount of changes and instability of

the moment, the individual can be affected and became unhealthy, not only physically, but

mostly mentally.

The mentally health includes the well being of the most important and

psychological aspects of the person, which will be determinant aspects on the point of view

and behavior of the individual and will also be clearly defined by the environment. That is

27 U.S. Congress, Office of technology Assessment. Adolescent Health. (Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services). Op. Cit. p. 60.28 Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. Op. Cit. p. 35.

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why, any condition that reveals the bad function of any of those aspects will surely reflect a

bad function of the society in which the individual habits. In the case of Alex it is possible

to affirm that he suffers from an undeniable conduct and behavior disorder, based on a

hostile and defiant attitude that violates others’ rights and established norms, displaying

symptoms such as truancy, lying, stealing and fighting29.

At the same time he has a huge mood disorder, characterized by a current mood of

unhappiness with feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness and irritability, which leads to an

unusual antisocial behavior, domain by aggressiveness, substance abuse and suicide trends

that intent to hide the real inside feeling and status30.

In Alex words: “I would perform the old ultra-violence on the starry ptitsa31 and on

her pusspots32 if need be”. Hence, these kinds of behaviors are proper of Alex and will not

only configure a wrong and dystopian society, but also will reflect it, in the sense that it is

the individual who builds society and it is society who builds the individual.

3.4 Activities and Discretionary Time33

Discretionary time includes the period of free time that the adolescent can afford

and enjoy, leaving away the time that he/she spends on educational, familiar and personal

activities. It has been clearly established that the activities done in the discretionary time,

contribute in the same way that activities developed in educational, familiar or personal

time, to improve the creativity and self-expression of the adolescent and also to determine

and define more his character, personality and self being. It is remarkable the importance of

these activities, because they are chosen by the adolescent, according to his criterion.

29 U.S. Congress, Office of technology Assessment. Adolescent Health. (Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services). Op. Cit. p. 430.30 Ibid. p. 40.31 Ptista (Nadsat term): means Bird and refers to women. Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. Op. Cit.32 Pusspots (Nadsat term): refers to genital and sexual part of women. Ibid.33 U.S. Congress, Office of technology Assessment. Adolescent Health. (Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services). Op. Cit. p. 88.

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In the first place, it is the use and abuse of substances that can alter mind and at

same time, the adolescent development; such as tobacco, alcohol and mainly drugs34. Our

main character does not avoid this problem. Alex is continuously under the influence of the

psychoactive substances35, to the extent that he is not longer conscientious and able to

control himself. The most astonishing and unbelievable thing, is that he openly accepts that

he spend most of his time consuming drugs. These can be seen in several passages of the

novel:

“(…) on milk plus vellocet36 and synthemesc37 and drencrom38 and other

veshches39 which take you far far far away from this wicked and real world into the

land to viddy40 Bog41 And All His Angels And Saints in your left sabog42 with lights

bursting and spurting all over your mozg43.”44.

Another thing that results to be quite unbelievable is the fact that he does not only

admits, but also shares his experiences of committing ultra-violence acts and sexual

controlled ones:

“I gave them the ultra-violence, the crasting45, the dratsing46, the old in-out-in-out47, the lot, right up to this night's veshch48 with the bugatty49 starry ptitsa50 with the mewing kots51 and koshkas52.”53

34 Ibid. p. 499.35 Ibid. p. 499.36 Vellocet (Nadsat term): it is originated from an invented slang, for refer to ‘Amphetamine’, a drug. Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. Op. Cit.37 Synthemesc (Nadsat term): it is originated from an invented slang, for refer to ‘Synthetic Mescaline’ (mesc) a drug. Ibid.38 Dencrom (Nadsat term): it is originated from an invented slang, for refer to ‘Adrenochrome’, a drug. Ibid.39 Veshches (Nadsat term): things. Ibid.40 Viddy (Nadsat term): from the original Russian ‘vidyet’, means to see. Ibid.41 Bog (Nadsat term): means God. Ibid.42 Sabog (Nadsat term): means shoe. Ibid.43 Mozg (Nadsat term):means brain. Ibid.44 The quote narrates the experience of Alex getting high, by a mixture of drugs and milk. Ibid. p. 180.45 Crasting (Nadsat term): it is originated from the Russian word ‘krast’, which means steal. Ibid.46 Drasting (Nadsat term): it is originated from the Russian word ‘drat’, which means tear to pieces, to kill or to fight. Ibid.47 Refers to sex.48 Vesh (Nadsat term): means thing. Ibid.49 Bugatty (Nadsat term): it is originated from the Russian term ‘bogatty’, which means wealthy or rich. Ibid.50 Ptitsa (Nadsat term): means women. Ibid.51 Kots (Nadsat term): it is originated from the Russian term ‘kot’, which means cat or tomcat. Ibid.52 Koshkas (Nadsat term): it is originated from the Russian term ‘koshka’ that means cat.

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Lamentably, not always these activities are rightly chosen and neither are the

most convenient to the adolescent; Alex has not a well established criterion that

guarantee his choice would be the right one and the effect of this has emerged and

become evident in his way of acting and spend his free time.

CONCLUSIONS

53 The passage describes another common activity of Alex; he tells how he committed ultra-violence acts, that includes robs and rapes. Ibid. p. 71.

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The dystopian context of A Clockwork Orange it is clearly defined by aspects that avoid

completely the most remote possibility of a model or ideal society, where is not such a

worth thing to value. All of society features summarize a dystopian context, domain by

chaos and decadence.

Every aspect of society and mostly of its members reflects a dystopian context and

with it a wrong and dysfunctional society, where there is no value given to what deserves it,

such as family and education, and where the behavior of young people, who are supposed

to lead society and be the potential future of it, are determined by violence, insecure sex

and drugs abuse; actions that just lead to an uncertain future.

It is remarkable to take into account that Alex DeLarge is a victim of his society and

can not be blamed by the wrongness that it provides to him, on the contrary, it must be

noteworthy the attitude and desire he takes in front of his mistakes, and the purpose and

deep desire he has to change and be a better person and in this way, make a better society.

It is admirable the way he faced his mistakes, the way he tried to mend them and

mostly, the way in which he learnt from them and took advantage of them to become a

better individual in his society. Also it makes a lot of people and principally youth, to react

and learn to approach every opportunity and to live without regrets in order to be always

advancing and not declining. Alex said:

“I'd changed my tune a malenky54 bit in my cunning way. 'You've proved to me that

all this dratsing55 and ultra-violence and killing is wrong wrong and terribly wrong. I've

learned my lesson, sirs. I see now what I've never seen before. I'm cured, praise God.”56

Finally, although is sad, it must be taken into account that the near future on which

the dystopian context of A Clockwork Orange is settled, can temporary coincide with our

present, moreover to our nowadays situation; the concordance could be more than time

issues. However, we as adolescents must take advantage of our facility to communicate our

ideals to do something not to allow this to continue happening and to prevent our

generation and the following ones to fight this dystopian context as part of our daily lifes.

54 Malenky (Nadsat term): means little, tiny. Ibid.55 Dratsing (Nadsat term): means fighting. Ibid. 56 Ibid. p. 115.

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We must take more seriously our role as future of our society and have a huge compromise

with it, facing whatever it involves and mostly, constructing a good society that leaves a

trace of positive and transcend aspects for world’s community.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Andersen, Soren. “Frightful Futures / With a Uniformly Grim Outlook on Where We’re Headed, Sci-Fi Movies Have Become Scarier Than Any Ghoul-Filled Film about Ghosts and Vampires”. The News Tribune. Oct 31, 1995. p. SL.3. ERIC Web Oct. 2008.

Bullen, Elizabeth, Parsons, Elizabeth. Dystopian Visions of Global Capitalism: Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines and M.T Anderson’s Feed. Children’s Literature in Education. 2007. p.127-139. ERIC Web 25 Nov. 2008.

Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. UK Version. London: Norton and Company Ltd, 1962. p.1

Lambirth, A. From Horror to the Sublime. The Spectator. November 26, 2005. ERIC Web 17 Nov. 2008.

Tyrrell Jr, Emmett. Sea of Cultural Chaos; Second Edition. Washington Times. April 30, 1999. p. A.18. Eric Web Nov. 2008.

U.S. Congress, Office of technology Assessment. (1991). Adolescent Health. (Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. Page

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