Alex and Patrick - Separated at birth

Alex and Patrick - Separated at birth? A comparison of characters Hypothesis For my project, I have chosen to compare and analyse the characterisation of two of literature's most psychotic characters, Alex from 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess, and Patrick Bateman from 'American Psycho' by Bret Easton Ellis. Patrick and Alex are from, and live in two completely different worlds, but what I aim to prove is that if you look past the superficial differences of the stories, the base characteristics and emotions of the two characters are the same. The Books Both 'American Psycho' and 'A Clockwork Orange' are considered to be satires and black comedies. Ellis' version of 80's New York and a Wall Street executive gone insane is considered a satire of the 80's obsession with greed, money, power, women, drugs and getting a reservation at Dorsia. It is about Patrick bateman, a successful stockbroker, who by day goes to work, discusses fashion tips with his friends and goes to the most expensive restaurants, and by night, is a psychopathic mass murder. It is derivative of, and has been praised as the darkest satire since... 'A Clockwork Orange', Burgess' vision of a future run by martial law with teenage criminals running amok is considered a satire on State Censorship, the government and free will. It is about Alex, a fifteen year old boy who goes out raping, stealing

  • Word count: 2597
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What is your response to Alex as he appears in the first four chapters of the Novel?

What is your response to Alex as he appears in the first four chapters of the Novel? In the first four chapters we are given a shocking introduction into the life of Alex. In these first four chapters we see Alex beat up a teacher and a old drunk, rape a young woman and beat up her husband, rob a shop, steal a car and perhaps the most disturbing we see him commit child abuse. At this time I think it is very important for us to remember one thing: Alex is fifteen-years-old. Yet we do not find this out until the end of book one. By delaying this Burgess makes us think that Alex is much older than FIFTEEN and therefore when we our told we begin to realise how dreadful his crimes were. Yet despite these committing all these crime Alex has no fear of the "millicents" or any other figure of authoirty. In the first four chapters Burgess gives us a preview into the life of his anti-hero and shows him in his world of ultra-violence, rape and Beethoven. When Alex is committing these horrifying crimes, he does it very casually and doesn't seem to think about the consequences or about how the crime could make that person's LIFE a living hell. A prime example of how looks down on his crimes, is after he has beaten up the teacher and stripped him, he thinks "We hadn't done that much" and refuses to make any " appy polly loggies". This casual view on his crimes is witnessed again when he

  • Word count: 2168
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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How do the writers of Riddley Walker and A Clockwork Orange present the future in their novels?

How do the writers of Riddley Walker and A Clockwork Orange present the future in their novels? Both Riddley Walker and A Clockwork Orange present a future where humanity is on the brink of destruction. Violence and death are common occurrences in both novels and the governments, rather than try to help their citizens, merely control them while covertly trying to gain more and more power. In Riddley Walker humanity has gone through a cultural devolution. It has regressed from a time when they had "boats in the ayr" to a second Iron Age. Man has returned to its hunter-gatherer roots. However this does not simply mean that they hunt live animals. Iron is a highly sought after resource and so finding and salvaging old pieces of iron is a common event in Riddley Walker's future. This all happened due to the "1 Big 1"; a nuclear world war which was initiated by Mr. Clevver, the Big Man of Inland. The Nuclear Holocaust written about by Russell Hoban stems from the period in which it was written. Riddley was written in 1982 and if we presume the past mentioned in The Eusa Story to be from roughly that year then we are, in the words of Riddley, living in a time where we "had evere thing clever". If that is the case then we can see The Eusa Story as partly an allegory of the cold war, part speculative vision of its outcome. Looking back, the notion of a nuclear war actually

  • Word count: 2162
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A Clockwork Orange - review

A Clockwork Orange ` Anthony Burgess has been heralded as one of the greatest literary geniuses of the twentieth century. Although Burgess has over thirty works of published literature, his most famous is A Clockwork Orange. Burgess's novel is a futuristic look at a Totalitarian government. The main character, Alex, is an "ultra-violent" thief who has no problem using force against innocent citizens to get what he wants. The beginning of the story takes us through a night in the life of Alex and his Droogs, and details their adventures that occupy their time throughout the night. At fifteen years old, Alex is set up by his Droogs-Pete, Dim, and Georgie-and is convicted of murder and sent to jail. At the Staja or state penitentiary, Alex becomes inmate number 6655321 and spends two years of a sentence of fourteen years there. Alex is then chosen by the government to undergo an experimental new "Ludovico's Technique." In exchange for his freedom, Alex would partake in this experiment that was to cure him of all the evil inside of him and all that was bad. Alex is given injections and made to watch films of rape, violence, and war and the mixture of these images and the drugs cause him to associate feelings of panic and nausea with violence. He is released after two weeks of the treatment and after a few encounters with past victims finds himself at the home of a radical writer

  • Word count: 2157
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Comparison of the final chapters of “A clockwork orange”, and “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”

Comparison of the final chapters of "A clockwork orange", and "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" A Clockwork orange and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde have many similarities and differences. The structure of " A clockwork orange" is very organised and together. There are twenty-one chapters in all, three parts, with each part containing seven chapters. Anthony Burgess used the symbol of the twenty-one chapters to signify that Alex has by the end of the book grown into a mature man, because twenty-one years old is the age at which a boy becomes a man. The book therefore is a journey from youth to adulthood through the eyes of Alex, as in chapter twenty-one he finally leaves his life of crime behind as he says: "perhaps I was getting too old for the sort of jeezny I had been leading brothers" The use of seven chapters in each part, signifies the use of the "seven ages of man" from the play "as you like it", this idea was that mans life was divided up into seven different stages, from birth to death, this could signify, the growing up of Alex, and the dividing of the chapters by three parts could be the different parts of Alex's' life which all helped him become an established man, so the three parts could be the three different view points of Alex as three years passed in the novel. Alex from a small young criminal, in part one: " Dim yanked out his false zoobies, upper and lower. He threw these

  • Word count: 2026
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange For a novel, which empathises betrayal and a dark society full of corruption and immorality, a clockwork orange seems to endorse a remarkable view on such characters in power. Dr Brodsky, Dr Branom and the discharge officer are the ones who empathise these particular themes in this chapter. Dr Brodsky and Dr Branom are responsible for the treatment of the Ludovico technique, which as a result 'cured' Alex. Dr Brodsky is written to be of a very prominent status with abundant power. But what we learn at this point in the novel is how Dr Brodsky uses his power in order to exploit those who are powerless. "He like patted me on the plectho and said: 'Good, good. A very promising start'" Dr Brodsky has a patronising tone in the way he talks to and treats Alex. He treats Alex as if he was like a robot or a machine, which wasn't able to function without the dependency of those who are in charge. Dr Brodsky and Dr Branom, from Alex's eye, are conniving, deceitful adults. Alex explains to us how it is just as bad to make the films about violence as it is to commit acts of violence. And what is even worse is how it comes across in the novel, that the doctors are getting a sinister pleasure from torturing Alex and disregarding his human rights. It seems as if they are not trying to teach Alex to better his life, but they are punishing him for his previous violent

  • Word count: 1946
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess has been heralded as one of the greatest literary geniuses of the twentieth century. Although Burgess has over thirty works of published literature, his most famous is A Clockwork Orange. Burgess's novel is a futuristic look at a Totalitarian government. The main character, Alex, is an "ultra-violent" thief who has no problem using force against innocent citizens to get what he wants. The beginning of the story takes us through a night in the life of Alex and his Droogs, and details their adventures that occupy their time throughout the night. At fifteen years old, Alex is set up by his Droogs-Pete, Dim, and Georgie-and is convicted of murder and sent to jail. At the Staja or state penitentiary, Alex becomes inmate number 6655321 and spends two years of a sentence of fourteen years there. Alex is then chosen by the government to undergo an experimental new "Ludovico's Technique." In exchange for his freedom, Alex would partake in this experiment that was to cure him of all the evil inside of him and all that was bad. Alex is given injections and made to watch films of rape, violence, and war and the mixture of these images and the drugs cause him to associate feelings of panic and nausea with violence. He is released after two weeks of the treatment and after a few encounters with past victims finds himself at the home of a radical writer

  • Word count: 1846
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Questions on 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess.

Chapter 2 - Questions on 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess is about a 15-year-old boy Alex who alongside his friends enjoys ultraviolence, rape, drugs and music. They live in a dystopia where the State is corrupt and the people live in fear. The 1962 novel is controversial and much acclaimed, raising moral issues on good and evil. It examines the problems of juvenile delinquents and the possibility of aversion therapy. Chapter 2 (Part 1) of 'A Clockwork Orange' is an important part of the novel. In Chapter 2 the reader learns a lot about Alex and his friends, or as Alex refers to them, his 'droogs'. ('Droogs' comes from the language that Alex uses in the book; it is a kind of teenage colloquial language, called Nadsat, which is used throughout the book). We also learn about Burgess and some of his opinions and learn a lot through the language used to describe what happens in Chapter 2. At the start of Chapter 2 Alex has just left "the Duke of New York", after already that night taking a concoction of drugs, terrorising and humiliating an old man, robbing a local shop, attacking a drunken man and battling with another youth gang. Already the reader knows Alex and his droogs quite well and have already to some extent learnt that Alex lives in a dystopia where the world is a place of terror. It is not a shock to the reader when Alex

  • Word count: 1845
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Clockwork Orange Movie Evaluation

"A Clockwork Orange" is a psychological thriller that examines and analyzes the effects of a corrupt individual and society's attempts to reintegrate him. The director Stanley Kubrick depicts a deeply chilling and disturbing story of a young man by the name of Alex and is considered a menace to society who is eventually punished for his wrong doings and given the chance of a lifetime to "reinvent" himself. The new an innovative way to reintegrate disturbed individuals into society is through a type of conditioning that causes a nauseating reaction to violent acts for the patient. It is difficult to determine the time period of the film since Kubrick uses scenery that makes it appear as though it could take place today, tomorrow, yesterday, or even fifty years in the future making it applicable to all times. In addition, Kubrick is very cautious to use problems in society that have been evident and irksome since the beginning of man such as rape, muggings, murder, etc. With this stunning combination of society's everyday problems, "A Clockwork Orange" is the type of movie that appeals to all time periods and will always be applicable to the troubles that are present in today's society. The psychological aspect of the movie is the way in which society wishes that it could deal with them through a simple program that allows the individual to be "reborn" in a sense and make it

  • Word count: 1765
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Violence in A Clockwork Orange

Violence in A Clockwork Orange Remind yourself of Chapter 2 of Part II of A Clockwork Orange. (i) How does Burgess present violence in this chapter? This chapter is unusually short; it is probably the shortest in the book. And yet the violence that takes place in the chapter is extremely graphic. It seems more intense because it is concentrated in two ways: firstly, it is limited by the more obvious confines of the prison cell walls; but secondly, it is confined in a metaphorical sense within the "walls" of a very small chapter. Therefore one would expect the chapter to be weak. But instead Burgess manages to cram every shocking image into a small space, concentrating the violence into one large, disturbing image. Scenes are described such as "the Wall fisted his rot" and "a horrorshow kick on the gulliver". These are nothing special when compared to some of the actions of the previous chapters. But what makes the entire scene stick in the reader's mind is how complete the description of it is. Added to the images are the descriptions of sounds, such as "oh oh oh " and "the new plenny creeched". Furthermore is the vivid and widespread use of the colour red: there are the usual copious amounts of "dripping red krovvy"; and the entire scene is cast in an ominous blood-like glow from the "red light from the landing", which almost sounds like a filming technique, even though

  • Word count: 1712
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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