Literary Devices in A Clockwork Orange
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Known as "cancers" in nadsat, cigarettes are what the characters puff on when they need to appear cool or nonchalant (in the case of the "modern youth"), when they are being philosophical or anxiou...
Setting
Considering that the novel was written in the 1960's, we're probably well past the dystopian futuristic setting Burgess envisioned for this work. Come to think of it, though, what constitutes the "...
Narrator Point of View
We only get what Alex hands us, so we've got to be mindful of both the perspective and biases inherent to a first-person narrative. The advantage to this is that we get extremely intimate with and...
Genre
One of the brilliant things about A Clockwork Orange is that it has its feet in four different genres: dystopian novel, coming-of-age story, horror flick, and political satire. From the top: it's a...
Tone
A Clockwork Orange is almost a foreign-language work: it's not written in British, American, or standard English. Instead it features nadsat, a made up language incorporating elements of Cockney an...
Writing Style
Burgess' clever and unique style owes much to his use of nadsat, which has its fair share of onomatopoeia to clue us in on what is being said (those of us who aren't experts in Russian, at least)....
What's Up With the Title?
As Anthony Burgess writes in the introduction (entitled "A Clockwork Orange Resucked," hee hee) the title refers to a person who "has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but...
What's Up With the Ending?
The ending, or the twenty-first chapter of the book, provides closure to the book for some readers. In fact, this is the only chapter where our protagonist-narrator experiences growth, or more prof...
Tough-o-Meter
Ultraviolence, droogs, milk: put 'em all together and you have a pretty grim tale on your hands (depending, of course, on whether or not you can get your hands on the infamous twenty-first chapter...
Plot Analysis
Alex and his entourage tear up the city and countryside, taking sheer joy engaging in ultra-violent crimes like mugging, robbery, gang fights, grand theft auto, vandalism, rape, and murder. He and...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
The "monster" is the threat of becoming a "clockwork orange" – an extremely visceral threat that Alex faces as a result of having undergone Ludovico's Technique. After all, a man who is unable...
Three Act Plot Analysis
Alex wages violent crimes in both the city and the countryside of a futuristic English state.Alex is imprisoned for his crimes, and forced to undergo behavioral therapy to be "cured" of his evil te...
Trivia
A Clockwork Orange was initially published in 1962. In the United States, the book was published with only twenty chapters. Elsewhere in the world, the book had twenty chapters. Apparently, this wa...
Steaminess Rating
To justify the R rating, let's quickly reference the following: "… real good horrorshow groodies they were that then exhibited their pink glazzies, O my brothers, while I untrussed and got ready...
Allusions
Aristotle (1.1.8)P. B. Shelley (1.1.26)Henry VIII (1.1.26)Berti Laski (1.1.10) Elvis Presley (1.1.26) Jonny Zhivago (1.3.3) Friedrich Gitterfenster (1.3.3) Geoffrey Plautus (1.3.26) Mozart (1.3.28,...