Analyzing Public Administration Themes in Classic Literature: A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange, a book originally published in 1962, written by Anthony Burgess, is about a group of youth who like to beat up old men, rape women, and rob stores. The book’s title is based on the central image of humanity becoming mechanical as the state takes away one’s free will. The author, through the negative consequences that come about in Alex’s life, argues that evil is better and more human than forced goodness. The government uses mass media for mind-control purposes to tout a way to “cure” the criminal population. 

Two versions of the book exist. The version with the twenty-first chapter shows Alex’s transformation from being young and immature to being older, mature, and wiser. He explains, “perhaps I was getting too old for the sort of jeezney (life) (Classic Note, 2003) I had been leading, brothers” (Burgess, 189, 1962) and then says that “there was this vesch (thing) (Classic Note, 2003) of finding some devotchka (girl) (Classic Note, 2003) or other who would be a mother of this on. I would have to start on that tomorrow….A new like chapter beginning” (Burgess, 191, 1962). He finds out his buddy Pete is married, “’Well, I like gaped still. ‘Over this get can I not, old droogie. Pete married. Well well well’” (Burgess, 188, 1962). 

“The twenty-first chapter gives the novel the quality of genuine fiction, an art founded on the principle that human beings change,” says Burgess (Burgess, viii, 1962). This twenty-first chapter shows that there comes a time when violence is seen as juvenile and boring and that Alex realizes that he needs to do something in life. He looks back on his past and wishes for a different kind of future. Burgess explains there is no point in writing a novel unless the possibility of moral transformation or an increase in wisdom happens to the main character (Burgess, 1962).