The use and effects of fictional argot in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange

Daniela Zavala Melo

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Response to the article

According to the article  the book “A Clockwork Orange “, there is a response to the use of  NADSAT language( the combination of English and Russian), and I will highlight the reasons that I found more interesting .

1. To make the character Alex sound, as an intelligent person that the book described
2. Is used with the family in order to the characters sound childish
3. Try to learning some Russian.

These are some reasons that  the article exposed to us, as the answer of the use of NADSAT.

Alex in the book is a fifteen year old guy which is really smart, but as this character has his own dark side sometimes it can sound mean.According to the article there are some scenes that he uses some words that can showed him as a person with lack of knowledge. The reason why NADSAT is used is to change the rude meaning of a word, and also to minimize the reaction of the reader for the bad actions, that Alex can have.

As a child, there are some phrases where Alex is with his family and as he uses NADSAT he sound childish and innocent, like if he were a normal teenager. The article mentions, that these scenes can create a normal Alex, a normal teenager.

Also the essay says that the author of the book, wanted to share the Russian and that the people learned about it, and also because in the book he exposed a street that refers to the connection of these two languages, and that in some point there are similar, in fact the NADSAT is the connection of these languages that Burgess create.

Finally in the essay it says that the NADSAT has an explanation, it has a “why”, and that is showed in the key points that he highlight and exposed to the public. Basically the language is a way to make the book enjoyable and to create a story where the violence and the bad words sound and seem less aggressive.