Clockwork Orange (0)

BOOK REPORT FORM 11
TITLE: Clockwork Orange AUTHOR : Anthony Burgess
YEAR : 1962 ILLUSTRATOR: -
DESCRIBE THE SETTING
Action takes place in England in future. Korova Milkbar is a palce where Alex and his friends (who he calls droogs) spend time. Milkshakes, which include alcohol, are sold to minors. They also spent much time in a bar called Duke of New York .
POINT OF VIEW
Book is written using the first person perspective Alex’s narration includes many uncommon words and a slang called Nadsat, which are apparently common to the speech of the youth subculture in the novel .
MAIN CHARACTERS
Alex is a protagonist. Alex is very easily irritable and very violent , for example he is very fond of opera and classical music but his friend Dim mocks it. Alex gets furious and punches Dim. He is also very arrogant even his gang members think so. The only thing that Alex values is violence and power . He thinks that Devil is inside him and explains that way his violent acts. He is from a good family and enjoys the power he has over his close ones. He has no empathy for his victims that mean he is very cruel. There are two things that Alex enjoys: blood and classical music.
IS THE PORTRAYAL OF THE CHARACTERS BELIEVABLE? WHY/NOT?
While reading the book, it seems very real , because characters are very well described . But for real life are these characters too unbelievable.
CONFLICT OR PROBLEM
Problem was that Alex and his friends committed crimes and loved violence
EVENTS : rising action
Beating vagabondagers, robbing, fighting with other gangs, raping, car thefts and other violent and gruesome acts.
CLIMAX:
Alex’s friends decide to rebel against him and he is left tied up in the crime scene. The police come and arrest him.
EVENTS: falling action
Alex gets imprisoned. Then he got the Ludovico treatment and wasn’t able to do harm to others and himself . But there were side-effects and he was reversed back to his old self. But he got tired of crimes eventually.
RESOLUTION:
Alex got the Ludovico treatment and couln’t even think about violence. Then it was undone and Alex was able to be violent again . After that he got tired of violence and crimes and changed into a normal society member .
COMPARE ONE MAJOR CHARACTER
Alex is in the beginning very violent but in the end he is not violent anymore. That is because he got the Ludovico treatment, which means that he gets ill even by thinking of violence. When he is not able to think of violence and even listen to classical music, which he loved before , turns him a very week person. He tries to commit suicide, but that is violence against himself. But after undoing of the Ludovico treatment he turns back violent for a short time. Eventually Alex is bored of violence and changes into a good society member.
WHAT IS THE THEME OF THE BOOK?
Author is trying to state that people can be abnormally violent and society is not able to protect it’s citizens against those people.
AUTHOR’S USE OF LANGUAGE AND STYLE Author makes up some words of slang but some are aloso from Polish or Russian. Author uses few symbols and irony is used very often.
YOUR OPINION OF THE BOOK
When I first chose this book, I thought that I would be very interested in it, because people, who had read it before, told it was a good and interesting book. I was disappointed, because it wasn’t as good as I was told. It was interesting but I couldn’t read it more than 30 pages per day. It was a hard book to read, because it was full of violence and author used slang. Also was hard to understand the hidden symbols in the book. After reading this book for a while I didn’t feel relaxed, but mostly it is a way to rest for me. This book can’t be read without doing serious thinking.