This summer, I encountered two of the most fascinating books I have ever read. They both involve the evolution of a person’s mind. The first book I read was A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and the second was Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Both were extraordinary books and exemplified how a person’s change in mindset can, in fact, change that person as a whole. A Clockwork Orange, in particular, stressed this aspect of the human mind and I found it very interesting.
First of all, I like to read books involving a different world in which the norms accepted are drastically different from those in society today. The world of crime in which A Clockwork Orange takes place greatly intrigued me for it exemplified a world in which crime, above all else, prevailed. The main character and his “droogs” take part in the crime as well. Also, the slang used in the dialect of the book, and of the narrator, Alex, made it interesting to read because it is similar to modern English, yet very different. Using words like “horrorshow” in place of “good” and “cutter” in place of “money”, the book made me imagine a world in the future, in which the slang we used drastically takes over.
The state of mind interested me the most though. The book starts out with Alex and his gang with criminal minds, going through the city, beating people up, and raping innocent women. The narrator’s tone changes drastically between this point and after Alex comes out of the hospital. Due to watching films of brutality, rape, and murder alone, doctors erase moral choice from Alex’s mind and turn him into an innocent, normal citizen. I found this idea very exciting because erasing the moral choice from a person not only changes his/her behavior, but also questions if he/she is a person or not. Choice is a huge part of being a human being in my opinion, and it is proven throughout this book, that the elimination of this aspect can alter a person entirely. This terrible realization that the modification of Alex’s mind is unacceptable is made at the end of the book though, and in consequence, they change his mind back to “criminal-like.” I found it interesting that the government in A Clockwork Orange found this “mind-changing” inhumane (as would I) and therefore, had to face the ramifications of changing Alex back.
After further reading about the writing of the book, I also discovered that the final chapter that I had read was not included in many books. I found this very interesting because the last chapter describes Alex’s ability to face morality and make the right decision on his own, after have given back his criminal mind. If Burgess had left this out in some versions, he would have implied that Alex stayed a criminal forever. This idea further stresses the point that morality and choice are both parts of being human and are important aspects of life. After reading A Clockwork Orange, I much contemplated the severity of changing one’s mind involuntarily and how changing it changes the person as a whole (524).
Tom--You raise a very good point. Given a choice between allowing people to make bad choices (ultra-violence, etc) and taking away their very humanity by denying the ability to make moral choices, the former, as unpalatable as it might be in some ways, becomes vastly preferable to the latter. Well said.
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