In both 1984 and A Clockwork Orange, the citizens are denied their rights and freedoms due to unreasonable policing and cruel punishment. In a clockwork orange, alex and his droogs do not treat people as fellow human beings, but rather as a way of experiencing their own personal sadistic enjoyment, which is simply a merciless demonstration of exercising the freedom of which they have become accustomed to. Free will is obviously an important theme. Immediately, Burgess poses the question “What’s it going to be then, eh?” (Burgess 1). This question presupposes that Alex has the ability to make freely decided choices. Since free will is one of the most important possessions of the human race, it was important for Burgess to explore the possibilities of losing it. Through the Ludovico Technique, Alex totally loses the ability to freely choose his actions, however horrible those actions might be. The doctors say at one point during Alex’s treatment that “You’re not cured yet. There’s still a lot to be done. Only when your body reacts promptly and violently to violence, as to a snake, without further help from us, without medication…” (Burgess 116). Alex is “cured,” he is not taught right and wrong. The term “cured” in this context seems to be interchangeable with the word “determined.” Alex is without possession of free choice at this point, and thus he is determined. Burgess gained much of his inspiration for writing A Clockwork Orange from his excursion to Leningrad in 1961. There, he observed the state-regulated, repressive atmosphere of a nation that threatened to spread its dominion over the world. During his visit, Burgess witnessed the remorseless brutality executed by thuggish Russian teenagers known as the stilyagi. The resemblances between the Russian gang culture and the “droogs” depicted in A Clockwork Orange are startlingly uncanny and it is highly probable that Burgess’ inspiration for the gang originated from this. The theme of restricted freedom is also reflected in the Russian society. However it was not Burgess’ intention to satirically mock the Russian communist ideology, but instead to estimate how communist societal views would affect the behaviourism of the British society. Although there is no physical consequence to excessively exercising freedoms within 1984, the Newspeak is an ever-present restriction which serves as developed language that is devoid of expression and was created to limit thought. In this way the Party is able to eliminate humanness and emotions, to keep the minds of many like the mind of one. I believe that it is the government control depicted within A Clockwork Orange that is the most debauched due to the controversial alternative therapy used to enforce control. Conversely, the societal rules within 1984 have always been present and so the people have had no other option but to conform as they would not be aware of how to behave in any other way; a man who was born blind would not know any differently.
It could be argued that the forged languages present in the novels are further extensions of the restrictive government regimes. In 1984, newspeak is the government's tool to limit the people's range of thought, and to control the masses. By systematically reducing words and eliminating language that is commonly appreciated, it allows the government to limits any thoughts that can be expressed verbally due to the deliberate translation barrier; new speak has no words to describe concepts that go against the party’s views, for example there are no words for democracy or freedom of speech, the closest word being "crimethink", as a result it is impossible to express any thoughts which go against the will of the party. In a contemporary society, language is constantly expanding, with a vast number of neologisms being regularly added to the dictionary. Conversely, Newspeak decreases in size justifying how the party is working towards gaining total control over the people; reducing the number of words also removes any literary value to writing, because there would only be one distinct way to present any particular concept. Not only would the correct words for certain concepts not be available, but a lack of adjectives would cause the writing would be completely bland and unemotional, which in itself would deter people from reading at all. The Newspeak equivalent presented in A Clockwork Orange is named “nadsat, and serves to fulfil several factors within the novel. Primarily it works as a literary device that seeks to temporarily alienate the reader from the world of the protagonist-narrator. Without constantly de-coding the language and translating it to give the respective English meaning, it is difficult to appreciate the Nadsat language. Whilst much of the wording separates the reader from a dystopian world, there are a selection of words that- with slight contemplation- are easily understood which in a sense reflects the fact that although Burgess’ society is a work of fiction, it is not outright unrealistic, which instils fear into the reader. Second, since nadsat draws its inspirations from Russian and Cockney English, it tells us about the author's political message. In Burgess's time, Russian was a seriously repressed totalitarian state, and Alex's fictional British world is not much different. Third, as we discuss in the "Characterization" section, an individual's use of language tells us a good deal about his place, function, and role in society. The origins of nadsat betray the political message Burgess intends to convey through its usage – that Alex's Britain is not that far off from being a totalitarian state like Russia. Nadsat is indispensable to A Clockwork Orange as a literary device. Without it, readers would never have the opportunity to develop the requisite rapport with the protagonist to stick with him through the end.
