Social Influences within A Clockwork Orange
The late 1950’s and early 1960’s were a crazy time for the United States, Britain, and everyone else worldwide. Anthony Burgess, an acclaimed author, was trying to make ends meet while living in London, told by doctors he was soon to die. In the days of this, he was forced to write in order to provide for his family. The book A Clockwork Orange was published in 1962 in order to support his family. The concepts in the novel are obviously influenced by the current times that he was living in. Also, the main concept in the novel, Moral Freedom, was clearly influenced by the changes going on. During these times, many youths were becoming involved in drugs and crime, which the characters in the novel also participate in. Secondly, extreme fundamentalist change that was upcoming would have caused him to write about such a topic, which was a main idea to developing the concept of Moral Freedom, which is represented. Finally, governments of many countries were communist or recovering from wars. They were experiencing many problems, just like the government that is in the book. The combination of those elements sparked thoughts of Moral Freedoms throughout the early 60’s. Therefore, the main concept in the novel, A Clockwork Orange,
...We condemned them, our children, for seeking a different future. We hated them for their flowers, for their love, and for their unmistakeable rejection of every hideous, mistaken compromise that we had made throughout our hollow, money-bitten, frightened, adult lives. – (June Jordan) was obviously influenced by the social changes and governmental conflicts of the late 50’s and early 60’s. The time Burgess wrote the novel in would have obviously influenced him to write about the main topic, that of Moral Freedom, and the details which caused the problem. This quote shows that the alliances of previous times had since collapsed due to the different beliefs of countries. The strong American-Soviet alliance had collapsed, as the Soviets attempted to spread their empire throughout Europe. This caused lots of commotion in countries, as citizens were never sure what was happening with their government. The governments often made weird movies, like in the novel, when Alex is given the treatment that the government assigns. The oddity of the governments is clear during the time period and is demonstrated in the novel. …All she did was slam the needle into my left arm, and then swishhhh in went the vitamin stuff… “what giveth then, brother? I can walk, surely, to wherever we have to itty to.” But he said: “Best I push you there.” And indeed, O my brothers, when I got off the bed I found myself a malenky bit weak. It was the undernourishment like Dr. Branom had said, all that horrible prison pishcha. But all the vitamins in the after-meal injection would put me right. No doubt about that, I thought. (Burgess, pg. 75)
Some topics in this essay:
Clockwork Orange,
Moral Freedom,
Joseph Stalin,
Goggly Gogol’,
Dr Branom,
June Jordan,
Anthony Burgess,
Moral Freedoms,
Union Weapons,
moral freedom,
Europe America’s,
fundamentalist change,
clockwork orange,
concept moral,
moral freedoms,
novel clockwork,
novel written,
book written,
burgess pg,
novel clockwork orange,
main concept novel,
demonstrated novel,
late 50’s 60’s,
concept moral freedoms,
changing developing own,
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Approximate Word count = 2311
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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