A Clockwork Orange: The Feelingless And Affectless Man, Living In A Mechanical Society
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A Clockwork Orange: The Feelingless and Affectless Man, Living In a Mechanical Society
In todays society the value of ones being has been abused. No longer do we foster the idea of nurturing our young, rather society has become detached from showing and sharing emotion. Becoming a society focused on technology, people have become merely objects of a mechanical society. Technology has reached an era of denaturing human nature; technology has made society lazy by making everything substitutable by inventions. Society has begun to follow a trend, thus believing nurturing parents and families are of the past. Modification advancements have started to replace tender loving care. Due to this rising trend families are no longer viewed as healthy, functional families, instead many children are not receiving the attention they deserve. After reviewing Anthony Burgesses A Clockwork Orange, one can locate a rising problem in todays society.
Illustrating the need for acceptance to create personal success to find peace in ones life, A Clockwork Orange shows how being so deprived of love and support throughout adolescence can lead to a life of failure and violence. Thus, suggesting the true importance of a well structured support system. The role of society and behavior modification proves just how important individual attention can be and how unnecessary it is to condition a human being. Supporting this argument in all aspects, A Clockwork Orange provides a powerful insight to the extreme world of personal struggle and dehumanization.
Family structures and household environments have always been a topic of the past, but now more than ever with behavior issues on the rise and societys high expectations, the finger should be pointed at the parental figure/ figures involved. The vital importance of parental support from a parental figure provides the backbone for ones individual up-bringing. Parents are the first people a child learns to trust, teaching the child how to create relationships with outside parties. Parents and families are considered the most important people in childrens lives. All children rely on their parents for support regardless of whether it is a physical support or an emotional support, especially so during the early years of childhood. Hence, parents play an important role in all areas of a childs life including the childs character molding and also in all their learning skills. Providing a parental role in a childs life provides them with a sense of direction and belonging, without this guide a child is sure to lead astray.
For instance, in A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess portrays this situation in his novel through his character Alex, a young teen whose actions are crying for attention and love. Struggling to find true affection, throughout the novel Alex displays many violent actions, all of which are due to his insecurity. Having no true direction from his mother and father, Alex finds himself on a metaphorical search for “HOME.” According to Todd Davis, Alexs lack of any functional family system in which he can interact and mature with causes him to fulfill his own desires to belong and be accepted since he can not count on the abilities of others(4). Alex being at the age of adolescents is search for his own personal self as he struggles to fit in and be accepted, he goes about dressing in his own manner, using the Nadsat language, abusing drugs and violence. Alex naturally begins manufacturing his own artificial personality and traits while creating his own independence and personal self image. Creating his own being Alex turns to body image, drugs, language and friends to find a balance of security.
Searching for masculinity, Alex tries to create his own manhood by extenuating his adolescent figure. Using imagines to conceal a manly identity, Alex tries to create a male authority figure in his life by making himself look much older. By giving himself sexual appeal, Alex dresses himself in costume like apparel, wearing an enhancing pelvic belt that wears over top of his pants and a white dress shirt with broadening shoulders. With reference from the novel Alex looked highly upon his personal appearance, Alex accessorized by wearing a black Bowler hat and black combat boots, referred to in the novel as “horrorshow boots for kicking” (Burgess 2), which provides an intimidating illusion. Critic Todd Davis offers the suggestion Alex is searching for the power masculinity, Alex has an image of what a man should be therefore he feels the need to fill those shoes since his father failed him(4). In the end Alex creates a transformation giving himself a new image, this image allows Alex to think and feel the way he wants. Alexs costume like outfit provides him with the authority he finds he wants to hold in his life.
Still denying the sense of self empowerment Alex feels the need to turn to drugs to numb his senses. Critic Todd Davis points out Alex uses drugs to “numb any true sense of self and negating the possibility of any interior ethical judgment” (4). Milk laced with drugs played a large role in Alexs social life, partaking in the event often Alex used the numbing sensation of the drugs to relax his fears and forget his problems. Whether one should blame Alexs authority figures in his life for his drug use or not, one can recognize Alexs relationships with his friends as his substitute family. Illustrated in the first chapter of the novel Alex shows his fond relation with his “droogs” (Burgess 15), “There was me, that is Alex and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie and Dim and we were sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our razoodocks what to do with the evening” (Burgess 1). Deprived of any close family relationships, Alex builds trust in his friends. Referred to in Nadsat as “droogs” (Burgess 15), Alexs puts his trust in their hands to be faithful friends. Alexs “droogs” (Burgess 15) represent the family he doesnt feel he has in the novel, providing as his brothers although the only true relation they share is through the brotherhood of causing violent acts. While Alex demands his “droogs” (Burgess 15) to stay loyal and expects their full support he never expects anything from his parents. Alex is quick to learn how easy it is for someone to become two faced, after Alex had put all his trust in his “droogs” (Burgess 15) in the end he got stabbed in the back. However, Todd Davis disagrees. Davis claims Dim, Pete and Georgie, (Alexs droogs), were much like his brothers. Rejecting this idea, one should see Alexs “droogs” (Burgess 15) not as true friends but Alex himself as the true test of friendship. For in the end of