Just Like Music (analysis of Clockwork Orange)

            Without the capability to enjoy, what makes humans mentally alive? What would happen if the pleasures most people take for granted were suddenly stripped away from them? A series of logical and situational conflict would ensue if a personal freedom such as pleasure or violence would be withdrawn forcibly. This is no more present than in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. This novel tells the story of morally corrupt teenage thug who is sent to prison and mentally re-educated to be a "model" citizen of the government. The main character, Alex, is a frightfully sadistic 15 year old "droog" who oddly finds solace in classical music such as Beethoven and Handel while he and his juvenile delinquents enjoy terrorizing the streets at night. They mug, rob, and assault anyone and anything at a moments notice. This erratic behavior lands Alex a fourteen year jail term sentence after his fellow droogs betray him and leave him to be apprehended by the authorities. To commute his sentence, Alex opts to be experimented on for Ludovico's Technique. This is a procedure which, by physical pain, removes any desire or even subliminal attempt at violence. As a side effect of the procedure, Alex has the same reaction to music. He is then released into a world where he no longer has the will to do anything he desires. His loss of choice and pleasure becomes the burden that he must carry along as he is integrated back into society. Alex's love for music plays a very essential role in the different choices and events that occur in Alex's travels. His classical music not only defines him as an individual, it also acts as his perception of ethical purity, and also turning points in the main plot.
             Alex's love for classical music adds more to Alex's personality and therefore greater defines him as the central character in the novel. Music proves to be emotionally therapeutic to Alex When Alex is having a bad day with his droogs, he goes home and pops in a Beethoven record.