In the most recent reading of A Clockwork Orange, we learn of a new, experimental treatment, Ludovico's Technique, that can supposedly "make a good man" (83). The treatment is described as inhumane as the prison's religious figure says that it it causes people to cease to be humans. First off, this is a state prison and this technique is being supported by the government, a frightening thought. But can you really have any pity for Alex? I am torn on this issue.
Alex has shown no remorse after two years in prison and has just killed another person. I'm extremely doubtful that prison is going to make him a better person when he gets out. I'm skeptical that any treatment can fix Alex's violent ways, though, regardless of how horrible it may be. With all of his horrible crimes still fresh in my memory, I'm not necessarily opposed to whatever horrible treatment awaits. At the same time, Alex seems to be walking into something terrible without understanding what he is doing, and for that I feel a little pity.
So far, McCarthy has not failed to continue to surprise me every chapter by consistently creating one scene more horrible than the last. I can only imagine that this treatment will trump all the horrors we have witnessed thus far.
On an unrelated note, I found it interesting that Alex showed acknowledgement that he is writing the novel, referring to himself as the narrator. This raises interesting questions about his education, as he seems to hate the highly educated. If he indeed wrote the novel, did he chose the title and what is the significance of the title? I'm still not sure how the title, as we saw it in the writers house earlier on in the novel, is significant to the text, especially if Alex chose to name his story after the writer's story.
Ludovico's Technique initially sounds somewhat like the training that women must go through in order to become handmaids. Since I'm not reading A Clockwork Orange, I'm not sure how this process "causes people to cease to be humans;" however, it sounds like it could be similar to the loss of identity and individuality women must go through in the Red Centers. Lack of humanness seems to be a trend in dystopian literature. In The Handmaid's Tale and 1984, the government makes people dress the same, conform to countless laws and expectations, forget about the past, and cease to think independently of the ruling body.
ReplyDeleteThe narration of the books I have read in this course so far is also interesting. The Handmaid's Tale is written in first person as a diary. The Road's narration was confusing; it is written mostly in third person but there are short passages where the man tells the story himself. Finally, 1984 is sort of a combination between the two. The reader can read his diary as he writes in it; however, the majority of the book is written in third person.
I do feel pity for Alex, as strange as that may seem, because he is a product and victim of the world in which he lives. Although others in this world do not seem to be taken in by ultra violence as he is, Alex is so insecure (like an average 15 year old) that he can only respond to that insecurity through an extreme reaction. He believes he is in control when he really isn't, and although he shows no remorse, perhaps it's because the power of his violent acts is all he has at this point.
ReplyDeleteHi Russell!
ReplyDeleteI think your comments about Alex writing the novel are very interesting. I think that the construction of first person narratives in the books we are reading this semester often becomes part of the mythology of whatever dystopian society the real author has created. The Handmaid’s Tale is intentionally choppy, as we find out later, because it is transcribed from tapes that were out of order. The book that I am reading, Super Sad True Love Story, is part diary entries and part transcriptions of internet chats, which speaks to the archaism of physical books in the new world— one would never write a novel, but they would write a diary or chat online. Do books figure prominently in the world of A Clockwork Orange?