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The process of growing older is accompanied by many serious moral questions that demand mature decisions. It is free will and the capability to make choices that make us human, and it is the harnessing of these two things that ultimately separate the adults from the children. In Anthony Burgess novel, A Clockwork Orange, Alex, the protagonist and narrator, tells the story of how he went from being a violent leader of a gang to a boy without the physical ability to commit an evil action. It is the ironic story of one teenagers struggle to keep his freedom of choice.
Over the course of the story, Alex's development illustrates how free will is the essence of maturity and humanity. As the novel progresses, Alex's choice of music type changes, symbolizing an expanded awareness and a different attitude toward his position in society. In Part I, Alex returns home after a night of extreme violence and puts on the classical music. When he listens to the violin concerto by the American Geoffrey Plautus he says, Then, brothers, it came.
Oh, bliss, bliss, and heaven (38), but he envisions vegas and piss, both young and starry, lying on the ground screaming for mercy, and I was seeking all over my rot and grinding my boot into their list (39). A concerto is a classical piece in which a group of instruments interact closely with a solo in a very strong fashion. It is this strength that allows Alex to conjure up thoughts of violence and confirm his societal position as a youthful troublemaker. He is reflecting on the day. However, the real reason that Alex loves music is not the violent images, or the summarizing ability that it has. The reason that Alex has a passion for music is because it connects him to a powerful feeling.
Through music he is able to pray and worship a higher power. Later, after he has attempted to kill himself, Alex hears Beethoven's Ninth for the first time since he has been deprogrammed. He says: Oh, it was gorgeosity and yumyumyum. When it came to the Scherzo I could video [see] myself very clear running and running on like very light and mysterious notes [legs], carving the whole list [face] of the creeping world with my cut-throat briton [knife]. And there was the slow movement and the lovely last singing movement still to come. I was cured all right. (205) Alex chooses the Ninth because it is a diverse piece that is mostly soft and subtle.
Alex sees himself carving the face of the world which does appear violent, but it is symbolic of Alex's growth. The carving of the face represents the changes that he has been through and the way he has grown since Part I. Alex makes the decision to reflect and meditate not through violence, but through a benevolent connection to the powerful music. This foreshadows his final decision in the book and most mature.
In Chapter twenty-one, Alex changes his musical preference: I was swooshing more like maloney romantic songs, what they call Leider, just a glass [voice] and piano, very quiet and like year, different from when it had been all bolshy orchestras and me lying on the bed between the violins and the trombones and kettledrums (212). Free from his days as a violent hooligan, Alex moves toward a more personal and individual style of music. Alex is choosing to move out on his own because he has discovered himself as an individual. The act of choosing a new type of music and exercising his freedom of choice confirms that he is beginning to break away from his old teenage ways and is now moving into adulthood. Alex's choice of music changes as he begins to become an adult. In A Clockwork Orange, Burgess compares Alex's understanding of the human capacity to make decisions at different points in the story; thereby showing that developing a conscience and knowing when one does have a choice is part of the maturation process.
In Part I, Alex explains the reason why he is bad. More, badness is of the the self, the one, the you or me on our only knocked, and that self is made by old Bog or God and is his great pride and radiosity... But what I do I do because I like to do (47). This shows that Alex understands that there is both good and bad to choose from, but he always chooses bad. As a teenage criminal, he affirms his power of choice in one way, by emphatically choosing evil, but, because he acts without consideration and forethought, he is not truly free. As a hooligan, he will always choose the bad choice, just like he always chooses the good after he s programmed this way.
Alex has no conscience at this point and is still a juvenile delinquent. At length, Alex muses in the final chapter, being young is like being a tin wind-up toy that indies [goes] in a straight line and bangs straight into things bang and it cannot help what it is doing (217). Alex is comparing youth to the machine that he was turned into by Ludovicos Technique. He completely understands that he was a bad machine when he was fifteen. He lacked humanity and maturity because he never had any morals, compassion, or understanding.
Similarly, in chapter twenty-one, Alex says goodbye to his need for violence and he says, Perhaps I was getting to old for the sort of jenny I had been leading, brothers (216). Alex begins to reflect more on his actions, and, in doing so, he works his way toward a more complete and realistic freedom. This last chapter really exemplifies the traditional Christian story of sin followed by redemption. Alex has matured through a developed conscience that gives him the ability to make moral, ethical, and humane choices in life. The question, Whats it going to be then, eh? that appears at the beginning of each of the novels three sections, is finally answered, and this affirms his freedom to choose.
His final and free choice of the good, of leaving violence behind him, shows that he has truly come a long way since the beginning of the novel. Free will is what allows people to be people, for if human beings only made the right decision, it wouldnt be the right decision, it would be the only decision. Children make choices without any forethought and that is why they can not be considered adults. A Clockwork Orange clearly shows how free will is the source of growth and and change. Using Alex's development as the vehicle, Burgess showed that there is no individual evolution without the liberty of choice.
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Research essay sample on A Clockwork Orange Teenagers Have Free Will
