A Clockwork Orange. The extract we are presented with shows us the scene in part one of A Clockwork Orange when Alex and his droogs rape an innocent young woman, referred to in the extract as a devotchka.
‘A Clockwork Orange’-short task
The extract we are presented with shows us the scene in part one of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ when Alex and his ‘droogs’ rape an innocent young woman, referred to in the extract as a ‘devotchka’. The extract elucidates the title of the novella as here the husband of the young woman is writing a story called ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The manuscript of the story explains that the sweet, orange-ness of humans can be converted into the lifelessness of a manufactured clockwork machine.
The novella’s evident dystopian form permits for the astonishing effect of the insubordination from the youth. In the extract it is very prominent as Alex and his group go from committing crime to crime. The whole extract, although very short, has a lot of commotion in it. This allows for the dystopian elements to be more arresting and therefore has a greater build up to the main thesis of the entire novel. For example, when Alex and his group take turns to rape the young woman, giving her the old ‘in out, in out’ they are also beating up the husband of the woman and the author of ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The overall effect of this is that the boys forcing the man to watch the rape of his wife predicts, in a way, what will happen to Alex in Part Two. In both cases, the men are having their free will stripped off them to a certain degree and must encounter something very displeasing and uncomfortable to his nature. The dystopian form also includes the way in which Alex and his droogs act. They keep the citizens isolated at night by keeping them inside their homes. In a certain sense, the boys aren’t just lurking and roaming the streets at night, they are also patrolling them. This shows that an evident dystopian theme because it shows that it’s not just the government under control here, it’s also the youth. The dystopian form permits for the effect of insubordination here because it is presented in a clustered but straight to the point way that really portrays the heart of the rebellion that the youth are going through here. The scenes are short but a lot goes on, like the random attack of the old man who rambles on about the putting men on the moon. Or the rape scene in itself was very short which made it more effective because the spotlight is, in a sense, put on it. It really highlights the rebellion of Alex and his droogs and the atrocious acts that they commit, which they happen to think is acceptable simply because it gives them great pleasure to do it.
