A. Burgess - A Clockwork Orange

Explanation of the novel's title
Anthony Burgess wrote that the title was a reference to an alleged old Cockney expression "as queer as a clockwork orange".¹ Due to his time serving in the British Colonial Office in Malaysia, Burgess thought that the phrase could be used punningly to refer to a mechanically responsive (clockwork) human (orang, Malay for "person"). It is possible, however, that Burgess invented the phrase as a play upon the expression "a work of pith and moment".
Burgess wrote in his later (Nov. 1986) introduction, titled A Clockwork Orange Resucked, that a creature who can only perform good or evil is "a clockwork orange — meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with color and juice, but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil; or the almighty state."
In his essay "Clockwork Oranges"², Burgess asserts that "this title would be appropriate for a story about the application of Pavlovian, or mechanical, laws to an organism which, like a fruit, was capable of colour and sweetness". This title alludes to the protagonist's negatively conditioned responses to feelings of evil which prevent the exercise of his free will.

Point of view from one person
A Clockwork Orange is written in first person perspective from a seemingly biased and unreliable source. Alex never justifies his actions in the narration, giving a good sense that he is somewhat sincere; a narrator who, as unlikeable as he may attempt to seem, evokes pity from the reader through the telling of his unending suffering, and later through his realization that the cycle will never end. Alex's perspective is effective in that the way that he describes events is easy to relate to, even if the situations themselves are not. He uses words that are common in speech, as well as Nadsat, the speech of the younger generation.

Plot summary

Part 1: Alex's world
Set in dystopian 2017, the novel opens with the introduction of protagonist, fifteen-year-old Alex, who, with his gang members (known as "droogs") Dim, Georgie, and Pete, roam the streets at night, committing violent crimes ("ultraviolence") for enjoyment.
Essentially, the first part of the novel is a character study of the protagonist. We learn that Alex and his "droogs" (Russian for friends) have their own language known as Nadsat, and their own hierarchy, in which Alex is the leader. There is a general disregard for the law and for older generations — creating an image of a youth movement that is taking control of this fictional future. (This of course being the exaggeration of the concern that came with the changing values of the 1960s, in which teenagers were becoming decidedly more unruly and rebellious.)
Part 1 involves Alex reflecting on his illegal activity (which involves the rape of two 10-year-old girls, and also the wife of writer F. Alexander). It describes the treachery of his droogs, resulting in Alex's capture and prison sentence for murder.
The use of lyrical language and Nadsat somewhat masks the horrible imagery of Alex's actions, and, to some extent, Alex is able to draw empathy from the reader, through his friendly nature towards his audience (referring to them as his "only friends," and to himself as "Your Humble Narrator," etc.).

Part 2: The Ludovico Technique
After getting caught for his crimes Alex is sentenced to 14 years for murder. Alex gets a job as an assistant to the prison chaplain. He feigns an interest in religion, and amuses himself by reading the Bible for its lurid descriptions of "the old yahoodies (Jews) tolchocking (beating) each other", imagining himself taking part in "the nailing-in" (the Crucifixion of Jesus). Alex hears about an experimental rehabilitation programme called "the Ludovico Technique", which promises that the prisoner will be released upon completion of the two-week treatment, and will not commit crimes afterwards.
Partially by taking part in the fatal beating of a cellmate, Alex manages to become the subject in the first full-scale trial of the Ludovico Technique. The technique itself is a form of aversion therapy, in which Alex is given a drug that induces extreme nausea while being forced to watch graphically violent films for two weeks. Among the films shown are propaganda films such as Triumph of the Will, which includes Alex's beloved Beethoven (last movement of the 9th symphony). He pleads them to remove the music, but they refuse to edit it, saying it's "for his own good", and that the music may be the "punishment element". At the end of the treatment, Alex is unable to carry out or even contemplate violent or sexual acts without crippling nausea. He is also unable to listen to classical music without experiencing the same jarring physical reaction.

Part 3: After prison
The third part of the novel concentrates mostly on the following punishment to which Alex is subjected after his treatment. Alex encounters many of his former victims, all of whom seek revenge upon him. He finds himself powerless to defend himself against them, due to feelings of sickness and fear of death, as a reaction to the violence. He finds he has been replaced by a lodger in his home, and wanders into the public library, only to be attacked by an aging old man who he had beaten up with his droogs in chapter one. The police are called by the librarian and when they arrive, he sees that the police are no other than his old 'droog' Dim, and arch enemy Billy Boy. Taking advantage of their positions, they take Alex into a rural part of town to beat him up, and then leave him to his own devices. While looking for solace, Alex falls into the hands of F. Alexander, the husband to the woman whom he earlier raped. Friends of the writer intend to use Alex as a weapon against the political party, exposing the terrible things that have been done to him. Although it is not clear as to whether the friends of F. Alexander intend it, their playing of a symphony by Otto Skadelig below Alex in a locked room drives him to throw himself out of a window instead of enduring the sickness of the treatment's conditioning. Alex's suicide attempt fails, and leads to his being cured, after the bad publicity for the political party that follows.
Touching on themes of the power struggles between old and young generations, the corruption of the police, and also politics, and attempted (but failed) suicide, the third section of the novel is the most reflective of the troubles of future society, mostly shown through the final chapter, where Alex reflects that he and his friends have either been killed (Georgie), fallen victim to the state (Dim's becoming a police officer) or outgrown their destructive behaviour (Pete). Alex finds that he no longer finds pleasure in "ultra-violence" and yearns for a wife and a child of his own. Alex knows that the generation after his will probably be just as destructive, and the one after that,"...and nor would he be able to stop his own son, brothers. and it would itty (go) on till the end of the world..." — perhaps revealing Burgess's ultimate deliberation on the unruly youth.