A Clockwork Orange--Lit blog for 3/19

Before reading this book, I had already seen a portion of the movie version. I had an idea of what it was about, so I think that helped me understand it better from the beginning. The language is hard to understand at first, but as you read you catch on to what words mean. This isn't the type of book I pick up to read for pleasure, but it wasn't a bad read. It is shocking and horrific the first time you find out what Alex and his friends are doing to the people of the city. The author makes it seem like the youth run the city at night and even the later in the book the police are somewhat corrupt. I do not agree with the therapy they imposed upon him. I guess if someone agrees then maybe it would be ok, but he had no idea what he was getting himself into. One of the value statements we talked about in class said something like...It is wrong to take away a person's choice. I totally agree with this. If we do not have the option to chose, we lose our freedom...something this country stands for. We have fought wars and still do for freedom. How could you possibly agree to have choice taken away? If your choice it taken away, that means someone else is making them for you. You are being controlled by someone else. In the case of an ordinary person, this would just never seem right. When it comes to criminals, they lose some of their right to choose and some of their freedoms. It is the consequence of their actions, but we do not totally take their option to chosoe away. They are still human beings. In the book, Alex is not given the option after the therapy to choose evil. He's not really reformed...he is just being forced to be good. If he had the choice he might have chosen evil and ended back in jail where he belonged because we know he still had the thoughts of evil in his head.