A Clockwork Orange help?

Question

hi i have watched a clockwork orange and i do understand it at all. it is something that i have to work on for a project in school. i need to write an entire report, maybe if someone who understand the movie can answer me some questions i am alittle baffled by?
why was alex the way he was before he was reformed?
what did violence mean to him? and his attitude towards people?
how did he feel about music was his taste in music normal ?
is the society Alex lives in different from ours or not?
how come the attempt to reform alex failed?!
and whats the moral of this movie?

if u guys could answer any of those for me it'd be a big help

Answer 1

You ask some really good questions, and there are probably several valid answers for all of them.

I have seen the movie several times, and have read both versions of the book (The USA version is 20 chapters, UK 21 chapters). In the 21st chapter, our humble narrator gets married.

1: The world Alex lives in is one that is in the near future, the Soviet Union and culture have been incorporated into the English culture. Alex has grown up with virtually no supervision and in a gang environment; yet he is smart and devious and wise beyond his years.

2: Violence and sex were virtually the same to dear Alex; people were just sheep to be shorn.

3: He wasn't a big fan of modern music and favored lovely lovely ludwig and other opera oriented melodies (with the exception of "singing in the rain" which was his signature song when he was doing his dirty work).

4: The Society was more socialistic than most democracies although not so different that you can't recognise common themes.

5: The attempt to reform alex didn't really fail until he took that fall from the ledge and ended up back at hospital. The phyiscal trauma brought him back to his old self.

6: The moral. Clockwork Orange refers to a clock with no internal workings, it looks like a clock but doesn't function; much like this overly permissive society that dear alex lives in. This is a cautionary tale about how giving authority to the state and taking it away from the individual will be the ultimate ruin of society.

That is one man's opinion:

http://www.geocities.com/maxrealus/aco.htm

would be a more professional look at the issues you inquire about.

Good luck with the report
Viddy well my droog

Answer 2

What's it going to be then, eh?

Anthony Burgess, the author of the original novel, wrote in an essay (available, I believe, in the book "But Do Blondes Prefer Gentlemen") that his inspiration for "A Clockwork Orange" was an earnest, insipid newspaper editorial opining that youth violence would go do if only the little thugs were exposed to more high culture, such as lovely lovely Ludwig.

Alex's mental and spiritual state before being "reformed" was his true nature. Violence was just another way for him to express strong emotions, along with classical music and sex. Alex was able to explore the borders of sociopathy because he was living a cossetted life in a welfare state, with little responsiblity for his own life. This society (imagined in the 1960s and with the British police still wearing an "E" monogoram on their helmets) is not that different from ours. Britain now has a higher rate of most violent crime and crimes against property than the US, although the yobs there don't use the russified dialect of Alex and his droogs.

The failure of the reform was the moral of the movie, and other posters have already cited this. A human being has a soul that in the end is not subject to mechanical controls. We have free will that we can exercise for good or bad, and attempts to steer this will to the good must be based on the soul rather than mechanical tinkering.

Caveat: it's been more than 10 years since I've read the book or viddy'd the red-red-krovvy of the film.

Answer 3

1. why was alex the way he was?
we all have free will as rational humans on earth. alex chose to be violent and a thug. you can choose to do evil or you can choose to do good. that was his choice.

2.what did violence mean to him?
it was his way of life. violence was beauty to him. it was something he enjoyed, and it was the way society was. notice how he loved listening to beethoven as he did violent, brutal things?

3. how did he feel about music?
see above

4. alex's society?
well...take a look around you....gangs, wars, rapes, pillaging, torture....you decide.

5.why did the reform fail?
the title "clockwork orange" refers to alex's reformation. if you turn a human into a souless machine, that is programmed and doesn't make choice, the human CEASES being human. yes, alex was "reformed" and tried to avoid violence, but it wasn't his choice to do so. he wasn't being good out of the "goodness of his heart." it was a FALSE sense of that inner guidance inside of all of us that tells us to do right.

6. the moral?
you have to decide....the story is so multilayered that many themes are present....

can you force people into being "good?" look at capital punishment and our prison reform system. does it work? what kind of society would we have if everyone had to be forced into being good, or simply...forced into *being*?

what is "good," and what is "evil?" how does society decide? is it fair of society to decide how to enforce goodness upon its citizens?

there's so much here....

you should really read the book. it's much more chilling than the movie.

Answer 4

There are too many themes and complex ideas about the movie.
To many to mention in one yahoo answers post. I would try searching the web using clockwork orange and analysis, or theme, to get a better response. More than likely youll get reference to the novel, but Kubrick stuck to the novel very closely so you cant got wrong,

Answer 5

The movie was a commentary on the increasing incidence of sociopathic behavior in society, AND the damaging techniques that behavioral psychologists employed to combat it.

Wikipedia has a good article on the movie.

Answer 6

i dig that movie,but im not sure those questions are answered in it.i think its open to interpretation.you ask"why was alex that wAy" well,he had caring parents so who knows.why was he violent towards people?i recall a comment"the glory of battle" so refer to question one.im bored now,bye.

Answer 7

I emailed you a link to my nephew who can help you better than anyone but Kubrick. Good luck, I didn't get the movie either.