Read Hard! Book Club

‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess

If there is anyone on the face of this planet that cannot handle violence or, ultra-violence, if I may be so bold as to borrow from Alex’s vocabulary, it has to be me. While as a child and younger teenager I was able to handle anything and everything, I found myself in a very awkward and terrifying position come my senior year in high school when I discovered that the slightest sound of gunfire, the least amount of hurt to a fictionalized character on tv or movie would not leave my mind. I was fixated on this violence that used to make sense to me. Or maybe, it wasn’t so much that it made sense to me. Maybe it was that, through years of being allowed to pick up bits and snippets of it in the media, I became desensitized to the sheer awfulness of it and something or other had broken that.

Upon reading that the next book for the book club would be ‘A Clockwork Orange’, I was excited and ready to go purchase it right away. I first asked my friends if they might have a copy and they all looked at me rather strangely and told me, “Adri… I don’t think you’ll be able to handle it. Try another book later.” This only intrigued me more and I bought a copy and started reading. 

‘A Clockwork Orange’ is now one of my new favorite books. I realize that a lot of people might not agree with me but I managed to see beyond the violence and saw the heart of the matter, what the book was really trying to emphasize. The nature of being human. The seemingly opposite duality that can exist in mankind. The question of what is really “good” and what is really “bad.” What happens when you are confronted with a character that seems to defy the definition? Do you rewrite the textbooks in accordance with this new subject or can you see that that is in all of us?

Alex was atrocious to me, to a certain level, in the beginning of the book but by the time he’s a free man again, I wanted him to be cured. And I realized just how strange that was. To want him to be cured would for him to be violent again. To be violent is to be bad but, to be violent for him is to be all he has ever been… all he’s ever known. 

How can you deny someone their true character, no matter how much it might not fit within the “correctness” of society? At what price are we willing to pay to somehow create a truly “good” world and what do we gain instead?

All in all, the 21st and “controversial” chapter (that was left out of the earlier American publications but is now back), left me wanting to follow Alex as he set off for his new life. I didn’t want him to leave the pages. He taught me to see in a different light and no matter how corny it might seem, I had to thank a fictional character for leaving an indelible mark in my mind and heart.

——-

A story that will pull you in two different directions. Makes you wonder what side you’re really on and then makes you question the true definition of being a human being. Anthony Burgess presents a masterpiece of the highest order with ‘A Clockwork Orange.’ He has created a sort of moral looking glass that all who chose to read this book are privileged to look into and experience another side of humanity. Look beyond the violence and superficiality and let yourself fall into seeing the world from Alex’s point of view, as twisted as it might seem. While you might be against who he is at the beginning of the book, by the end, you’ll realize that this anti-hero and his struggles are the reason why your heart hurts and cries out for justice. The use of nadsat, the deep irony that brings the book to an amazing close and the powerful quotes of moral choice make this book a must read for everyone who has ever thought of the distinction between “good” and “evil.” The last “controversial” chapter will surely make your head spin and leave you begging for more information on the one “bad” character in literature that you want to follow forever.

As posted at: letteraday.tumblr.com