Mariana Gómez Velarde
A01376401

Clock Work Orange

Clock Work Orange is a dystopia of what was happening all across the world, around the 60´s. Burgess, the author and creator of nadsat, tried to embody how gross and evilly can society act, taking it to its maximum expression. This is done because Burgess wills to make you feel something, because human race only reacts when the situation includes a different level to the one familiarized with. Therefore he creates Alex and his droogs, principle characters and physical example of evilness.

Later Stanley Kubrick directed the movie, event that Burgess didn´t like, nevertheless the movie and book are very close related, despite the little changes that were done in the movie. The movie starts with the same paragraph that the book starts with, but the book does not approach the extremely sexual motif, this can be seen at the beginning of the movie when they are the bar and as tables writhe women mannequins are used.

Another example is that they changed the age of the characters, because in the book they are 15 years old or about, while in the movie they are shown as guys in their twenties, this change was done because having 15 years old rapists wasn´t socially accepted in the early 60´s. Alex can be perceived as a no purpose evil guy, but actually he is trying to give a message of control and power at least in his little circle, because as Burgess mentions in his introduction he is seen as inferior by the adults, starting from his ignorance to his immaturity.

However, the essence of the book is kept throughout the whole movie, awaking in the viewers the same feeling that they could get from reading it, or even exaggerating it, because as the movie is a visual device, the muffin created by the nadsat is somehow erased because what isn´t understood can be seen.