Oranges with clockwork
The story in Orange with Clockwork takes place in the near future. The hero and narrator of the story is Alex, just 15 years old. One winter night, Alex and his companions George, Peter and Tim were sitting in Cowa's milk shop in London, having a drink. They wore fashionable clothes at that time, white coats, white scarves, tights, plus a pair of briefs-shaped protective pants and boots suitable for kicking. They sat around bored and shouted "get out, get out" and crowded into the street. They saw a man who looked like a teacher coming alone and went to look for something. They tore up the man's book first, then punched and kicked him for a while. Then, four teenagers walked into the "Duke of new york" hotel to squander money, and then robbed a small shop. Still not satisfied, four people injured an alcoholic on the road until he bled. Near the city power plant, Alex and his gang met another gang of hooligans headed by Billy, and the two sides met in a narrow way until the whistle of the police car dispersed. Then, four people stole a car and drove on the rampage to the suburbs. They drove to a villa called "home" (meaning "home"). Alex lied that his companion had a sudden illness and wanted to trick the hostess into opening the door by phone. Then four people wearing masks rushed into the villa. They found that there was only one man and one woman in this well-dressed house. The man sat in front of a typewriter, dealing with a stack of manuscripts entitled "Wind-up Oranges". Obviously, this man is a writer. Four people began to tear up the manuscript and then violently attacked the woman in front of the bound man. Finally, they smashed the furniture in the room and left. They drove back to the city, pushed the car into the ditch, went to Kaulawa's milk shop for a while, then broke up and went home separately. Alex and his parents live in the downtown 18A apartment building. It's getting late, but he plays stereo music. Neighbors have long been used to not complaining and can only use sleeping pills to force themselves to sleep. Alex 1 1 went to the reformatory. My father works in a factory and my mother works in a vegetable market. She goes out early and comes back late, so she has no time to take care of him.
His mother told him to get up for school before going to work the next morning, and he pretended to have a headache. The teacher in the reformatory came to see him and warned him not to commit a crime. Alex doesn't care. After the teacher left, he went out again and tricked two ten-year-old girls into running amok. In the evening, his father asked him what he was doing outside every night. He said that he was doing odd jobs and gave the money he had robbed to his father, saying that he earned it by working on his own. Then he slipped out of the house and planned to steal jewelry with three accomplices. I didn't expect alex to do it too hard. When the theft failed, he made a copy of the woman, and fell into the hands of the police because he was abandoned by his partner. The next day, the woman died in the hospital, and Alex was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Two years have passed. In prison, Alex killed again. On this day, Alex asked the prison priest who was kind to him if the Ludwig therapy published in the newspaper could really cure criminals and make them unwilling to commit crimes. The priest is deeply suspicious of this and thinks that this therapy is to impose "goodness" on others, rather than really teaching people to repent and turn over a new leaf. As it happens, the minister of the interior came to inspect the prison, hoping to make room for political prisoners, so he decided to take Alex as an experiment to see if Ludwig therapy was effective. The next day, Alex was sent to the newly-built treatment center. When he heard that the treatment only took two weeks, he began to daydream, thinking that he would be free soon. Everyone knows that the process of treatment is very painful: his head and limbs are firmly fixed, his eyelids are opened and he can't close his eyes. Then he was forced to watch all kinds of violent movies in this position for several hours every morning and afternoon, which made him feel headache, nausea and general discomfort every time. The doctor who treated him found that the language used by Alex is a popular language among teenagers, mainly composed of the language used by Slavic propaganda tools and various idioms, slang and fluency. The doctor also explained to Alex that Ludwig's treatment policy is to link the violence in the film with the physical discomfort of the prisoner when watching the film through "association method", so that the prisoner's body will have a reflective aversion to violence, so as to achieve the goal of not engaging in violence again. Sure enough, when Alex tried to escape, he found that it was better to be beaten than to hit someone. The treatment produced results, and the attending doctor specially held a public examination for him. Among the people who came to observe were the Minister of the Interior, the prison chaplain, the warden and others. Alex refused to fight and was able to resist the temptation of women, which surprised the audience. Even the prison priest had to admit that this treatment made Alex a true Christian. However, Alex has his own doubts. He asked himself, "What am I? Is it an orange with a clockwork? " He seems to be very dissatisfied with his mechanical reaction. Anyway, he is free. Alex went home with his little package.
Although the newspaper hyped Ludwig's therapy was a great success for him and the crime was just around the corner, his parents didn't know the news that he was released from prison. His room was occupied by a tenant, and he had no place to live. Facing his surprised and helpless parents, Alex turned and left the home he missed day and night. He wanted to kill himself, but he couldn't find a non-violent way. He went to the library to look up books and was besieged because he was recognized. The police arrested him and beat him up. Finally, in a daze, Alex came to the villa of "home" again and was received by the writer. The writer's wife has passed away. This writer is actively engaged in political activities against the current government, because he believes that the Ludwig therapy promoted by the government is turning people into machines, denying people's legitimate choice and violating human nature. He wants to use Alex against the government. When the writer began to suspect that Alex had attacked his home, he joined hands with his friends to induce Alex to commit suicide. However, an attempted suicide was taken to hospital for emergency treatment. All kinds of people came to visit him, and the Minister of the Interior personally came to visit him, calling him a friend and promising him a decent job after he was discharged from the hospital. The hospital gave him another treatment to make his body no longer hate violence: he really recovered.
Clockwork orange is a futuristic classic. Clockwork orange is not so much a dystopian novel as a nightmare prediction of the contemporary world. Orange with Clockwork is the best-selling work of prolific writer Burgess, and it is also one of his representative works. Alex, the protagonist in the book, is regarded as one of the most typical violent images in contemporary novels. His character is characterized by no sense of morality and guilt. He delights in violence and is a worrying product of anti-moral civilization created by today's material civilization society. Alex is also typical, because his name and the names of his colleagues are used together in English and Russian. Burgess has been to many places. Before writing this book, he also visited the Soviet Union. Many critics have pointed out that although The Orange with Clockwork is set in Britain, the author must have written the book in the background of American and Soviet society. One example is Burgess's theoretical questioning of Skinner, an American psychologist and a famous behaviorist school representative. The influence of the trip to the Soviet Union is even more obvious in the book. Ah, these teenagers in Rix use a special language called "Nachaji", which the author borrowed from Russian. The original meaning is "teenagers", which is equivalent to "teen-" in English. The "good" or "great" in Nachaxi is also borrowed from Russian. The clever use of this word lies in that the author slightly changed one of the consonants into the word "horror movie" in English, which vividly implies the psychological characteristics of western teenagers who like to watch horror movies.
The author's profound knowledge of language is creatively embodied in this book. Burgess's satirical ability is also actively reflected in the novel. In Alex's experience of getting out of prison, he highlighted the disadvantages of democratic government and authoritarian government. First, because the democratic government relaxed the management of social security, Alex acted recklessly and was even killed. Later, for the sake of social stability, he was treated inhumanely and became another victim. In Burgess's works, both governments were deeply satirized and criticized. The autobiographical color in the works is also worth mentioning. First, Burgess designed one of his imitators in the book. The imitator is also writing a book called Clockwork Oranges. The main purpose of this book is also to oppose the inhuman education of criminals by the authorities and turn people into machines with no choice. Another similarity is that Burgess's wife was attacked by hooligans in London when she was pregnant, and she miscarried. However, if the novelist in the book is equated with Burgess, there will be misunderstanding. Burgess is superior to the author in the book, because he believes that human beings have a good side, cares more about the personal happiness of others, and opposes the extreme behavior of the author in the book. Burgess's satirical brushwork is very sharp. Popular views on western society; Elegant music and poetry can influence and educate teenagers. He specially designed Alex to have the ability to appreciate classical music. Alex's favorite music happens to be Beethoven and Mozart. In connection with the deliberate playing of classical songs by German fascists during World War II, Burgess's critical intention is very clear: moral education has nothing to do with personal interests.
"Orange with Clockwork" once had two different endings. The first British edition published has one more chapter than the later American edition. In this chapter, Alex begins to get tired of violence. When he saw his acquaintance as a teenager get married and live a stable life, he realized that he wanted to live like this. He wants to get married and have children, and he also wants to educate his son not to make the same mistake. Of course, Alex knows that he can't realize these wishes. This chapter adds a little optimism to the work, but it also lacks some ironic power, so it is not as powerful as the deleted ending. According to the abridged ending, Alex, who has recovered his interest in violence, will undoubtedly commit another crime, and imprisonment or execution is his inevitable ending. Burgess thinks this is an improvement on this more violent ending.