Social Programming vs. Moral Choice: The Characterization of Free Will in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony - Essay Example

 Social Programming vs. Moral Choice: The Characterization of Free Will in “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess Fundamentally, due to the effects of social conditioning on the ability to make moral judgments, the prison chaplain and Alex, the protagonist in the novel “A Clockwork Orange”, can be considered as characters who have lost free will and critical self-awareness in the form of conscience. This loss is the result of having suffered various forms of political and religious conditioning. Contextually, Alex and the chaplain are depicted as two different types of machines, one good and the other evil by relation of their social positions as pastor and criminal. Burgess describes Alex as "a clockwork orange - meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State.” (Burgess, 1986, p.3-4) He goes on to write, “[i]t is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil. The important thing is moral choice,” (Burgess, 1986, p.4). This summarizes the most important theme of the novel, of the importance of moral choice as a fundamental characteristic of what defines us as human beings. The prison chaplain is depicted as unconscious of his social programming, confusing the fundamental aspects of religion in his ministering to the criminals in the faith, as is Alex in his stylistic, ultra-violent lifestyle. Both characters can be viewed as anti-heroes or the opposite examples of what Burgess hoped for humanity to be ideally, as he explains in his introduction to the 25th year anniversary version of the novel. Along with a vision of a dystopian future world, Anothony Burgess creates these anti-heroes as protagonists and builds a moral framework within the novel that communicates the theme of the dangers of all forms of social programming. Advertising, education, religion, politics, patriotism, music, language, and fashion are all examples of dangers that pose the threat of generating false identities for those in society who accept the messages as part of their personality or lifestyle without critical self-reflection. Following the conditioning treatment Alex agrees to receive in order to repent his crimes, Alex meets the writer, one of Alex’s victims prior to his punishment, in the novel who tells him: “You've sinned, I suppose, but your punishment has been out of all proportion. They have turned you into something other than a human being. You have no power of choice any longer. You are committed to socially acceptable acts, a little machine capable only of good.” (Burgess, 1987, p. 87) If previously Alex was programmed by the effects of music and youth culture to live an ultra-violent, nihilistic existence, after his indoctrination at the prison, he is equally empty, for in neither instance does he display the critical self-awareness required by humans in order to exercise moral judgment. “"Choice," rumbled a rich deep goloss. I viddied it belonged to the prison charlie. "He has no real choice, has he? Selfinterest, fear of physical pain, drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. Its insincerity was clearly to be seen. He ceases to be a wrongdoer. He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice." "These are subtleties," like smiled Dr. Brodsky. "We are not concerned with motive, with the higher ethics. We are concerned only with cutting down crime - " "And," chipped in this bolshy well-dressed Minister, "with relieving the ghastly congestion in our prisons." (Burgess, 1986, p.72) Burgess portrays a dystopian future reality, emphasizing the important issues in contemporary modern English society in the 20th Century. These are similar to the themes addressed by George Orwell in ‘1984,” fearing the mind-controlling aspects of totalitarian government as it developed from mass-media and popular democracy, but Burgess also highlights the way that style, fashion, advertising, and trends reinforce this in society. Both Alex and the prison chaplain in the novel are portrayed as uncritical and selfish, filled with different types of social programming - not as heroic figures and models of admiration, but as humans who have lost their own ability to think for themselves and to see what is really valuable and true in the society. In a conversation with Alex and his parents after emerging from prison, Burgess emphasizes the discussion of morality between the characters: ‘“All right,” I said, standing up in all like tears still. "I know how things are now. Nobody wants or loves me. I've suffered and suffered and suffered and everybody wants me to go on suffering. I know." "You've made others suffer," said this Joe. "It's only right you should suffer proper. I've been told everything that you've done, sitting here at night round the family table, and pretty shocking it was to listen to. Made me real sick a lot of it did." "I wish," I said, "I was back in the prison. Dear old Staja as it was. I'm ittying off now," I said. "You won't ever viddy me no more. I'll make my own way, thank you very much. Let it lie heavy on your consciences." My dad said: "Don't take it like that, son," and my mum just went boo hoo hoo, her litso all screwed up real ugly, and this Joe put his rooker round her again, patting her and going there there there like bezoomny. And so I just sort of staggered to the door and went out, leaving them to their horrible guilt, O my brothers.’ (Burgess, 1986, pp.77-78) In this conversation, Alex reflects on his own feelings in an intimate and charged conversation following his release from prison. searching his own memories and self-awareness for the reasons that his life developed on its course of suffering, then immediately closing off this line of inquiry, stating that he would never see his parents again. Burgess’ anti-hero Alex in the novel represents the elements of modern youth culture in the 1960’s that were seen as immature in relation to the advanced requirements of democratic citizenry and the enjoyment of free society, yet still as products of the liberal tradition in a self-contradictory way. The youth of these times were often superficial, and the extreme examples of the dystopian future show the risk of society being programmed maliciously by corporate interests and the State through commercial advertising, fads, mass media, and social trends. Many individuals give up on the higher aspects of knowledge in order to embrace an empty pop culture that leads nowhere other than to conspicuous consumerism and the loss of the critical thinking abilities that common morality depends upon in society. Just as easily as social programming in the form of advertising or music could create vast new trends and even new languages within youth culture, the same forces could be used as propaganda to build hatred, division, and even ultra-violence within the same society. As Alex describes his own behavior and motivation in the novel: “We were dressed in the heighth of fashion, which in those days was these very wide trousers and a very loose black shiny leather like jerkin over an open-necked shirt with a like scarf tucked in. At this time too it was the heighth of fashion to use the old britva on the gulliver, so that most of the gulliver was like bald and there was hair only on the sides. But it was always the same on the old nogas-real horrorshow bolshy big boots for kicking litsos in.” (Burgess, 1986, pp.100) The prison chaplain, or charlie as Alex addresses him, is a character who appears to have more of a self-reflective nature than the young criminals locked in the prison that he serves. Yet the charlie himself is depicted as one who practices a very distorted and warped version of Christianity, far from the ideals of love and forgiveness that shape religious compassion. The charlie seems hypnotized by the “hellfire and brimstone” aspects of religious belief, and finds joy in the showering of hate and torment upon sinners from within his own cloud of doubt. “And now, talking of praying, I realize sadly that there will be little point in praying for you. You are passing now to a region where you will be beyond the reach of the power of prayer. A terrible terrible thing to consider. And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprive of the ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good. So I shall like to think. So, God help us all, 6655321, I shall like to think.’ And then he began to cry.” (Burgess, 1986, p. 55) Thus, his religion has become based upon hate and suffering rather than love, forgiveness, and liberation, a nature he is unconscious of personally due to his moral confusion. When the charlie ministers, it is inevitably the opposite of true religion rather than its positive aspect that he speaks of to the convicts, thus representing the negative or unconscious aspects of social programming and personal identity as manifest in religious belief in a manner different from the secular perspective of Alex. The prison chaplain states in part two of the novel: “’It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good. And when I say that to you I realize how self-contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want woodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some ways better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions, little 6655321. But all I want to say to you now is this: if at any time in the future you look back to these times and remember me, the lowest and humblest of all God's servitors, do not, I pray, think evil of me in your heart, thinking me in any way involved in what is now about to happen to you.” (Burgess, 1986, p. 55) In this manner, the chaplain represents neither hope nor the good, but rather the dead end of an old programming technique and the human tragedy of a lost individual swimming in hatred but falsely believing it to be religion. This is not a model of a morally aware individual any more than the ultra-violent prison delinquents the chaplain ministers to in the faith. Although Alex is much of an anti-hero, his character is made to be stylish and “cool”. Alex and the prison chaplain can be seen as anti-heroes exemplifying the opposite of the message that the novel communicates critically and symbolically, which is the importance of moral choice in all aspects of human behavior, even the extremes of religion and crimnality. The chaplain’s ideas show a complete misunderstanding of the religion he claims to represent. This is a key to the characters and theme of the novel. Burgess shows that when a creed is unconsciously or uncritically repeated, it can not only lose all meaning, but also even change into its opposite ideology and continue unnoticed by the followers of the movement. As a dystopian projection of everyday England in the 1960’s, this is an insightful and frightening vision into the direction that social programming, superficial culture, and warped educational standards can take in turning society upside down. Works Cited Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange (UK Version). US: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. Burgess, Anthony. “Introduction: A Clockwork Orange Resucked,” Published in: A Clockwork Orange (UK Version). US: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. Read More