Chad+B

Plot Overview: In the novel //A Clockwork Orange,// a fifteen year old named Alex lives in a futuristic time with his droogs or gang friends. They spend most of their time going out at night and causing a ruckus, getting high on various hallucinogenic drugs and assaulting and raping people. The book starts off with Alex, Dim, Pete, and Georgie at the Korova Milkbar, a local bar that sells alcohol laced with hallucinogens, drinking their favorite drink. They go outside and find an old man in an alley that they beat up and take his money. The book continues with Alex being the narrator explaining how they are the best dressed gang in the area, how they like to beat up and rape random people, and how they begin to struggle with Alex being the leader of the gang. Dim challenges Alex’s authority who then hits Dim in order to maintain superiority and not to lose his position in the gang. The gang decides to go home and go to bed and not make a big deal fight out of all of this since they are all tired and a little cranky. The next night the gang meets at the Korova once again to get together and start more trouble throughout the town. Alex then decides they should persuade an old lady to let them into her house so they can rape and rob her. Alex then decides to prove his leadership skills and pull this off by himself. He knocks on the door and asks the old lady if he can enter her house to get a glass of water and use the telephone, explaining that his friend is in trouble and in need of medical assistance. She denies him entrance so he breaks into her house through a window above her door. He proceeds to battle this woman out after getting attacked by her many cats and rapes her. As he tries to leave Dim shows up at the door and explains how he is a poor leader and that he shouldn’t have hit him like that. He then hits Alex across the eyes with a chain and they run as the police show up to arrest Alex. They take him to jail for breaking and entering, rape, and what later turns out to be murder. The lady is later found out to have had a heart attack after what Alex did to her and died. He stays in jail for about a year before being asked if he would like to participate in an experimental program and possibly be released from prison if his treatment is successful. The program is explained that he will be moved to his own room with a bathroom and watch a series of movie clips per day as an experiment. He agrees and then enters the program the following day. They drug him before each session, which Alex just believes is some kind of vitamin enrichment supplement to counter the malnutrition he suffered in prison. They show him clips of violent films which make him sick and panic and actually feel compassion for the innocent people being attacked and raped. He later feels sick at just the thought of violence, hence changing the way he behaves. They test him once by hitting him to see if he will strike back. He clenches his fist ready to strike back but the thought of violence makes him sick to his stomach. He then curls on the floor and grabs the feet of his assailant and begs for him to stop. This made him pass the test since it appears they have been able to get him past his old violent ways. They release him for passing the program and he finds refuge at a middle aged mans house after being found by Dim, who is now a police officer, beaten, and dropped off in the middle of nowhere. He later finds out that this man who is taking care of him is the man who Alex previously broke into his house, beat, and made him watch as he raped his wife. He finds out that his wife later died and he has been plotting to change the government since losing his way. He scares Alex later on, Alex thinking he remembers who he is and what he did and also being crazy about Alex being part of his plot to overthrow the government, so Alex moves on to find his way home. Upon arriving back at his home, his parents were upset, thinking he was on the run and broke out of jail early and explained that his room was being rented out to a man who was paying to live there. They explain that they cannot just kick out this gentleman and tell him he cannot stay there. Lost with nowhere to go and feeling less human and like an empty shell of what he used to be Alex tries to commit suicide by jumping out of the window. He survives but while in the hospital is somehow turned back into the way he used to be, the doctor reversing the effect of the program in prison. His parents then apologize and allow him to move back into his old room. Later on, with his newly formed gang of his new friends Len, Rick, and Bully, he sat at the Korova Milkbar, just like in the beginning of the story, sipping his alcohol laced with hallucinogens they then go outside and beat up an old man in an alley. To this point we have found out that everyone had moved on except for Georgie who had been killed, Dim was a cop, Pete recently got married and had a job. We find out Alex might not have changed so much after all. He, after beating this man, envisions himself with a family after thinking of Pete and how he had grown up so much. He pictures his future with a wife and a son who he will explain to how to live and avoid the same mistakes he had made. But he then explained how no matter what your parents say, teens will always have to find out the hard way, live their life and make their own mistakes to learn from. He then proclaims that he, now being eighteen, has finally began to grow up and intends to start his better future. Character List: Important Quotations Explained: Study Questions and Essay Topics: The story takes place in a futuristic setting where the night belongs to the teens to go out and wreak havoc. The government is in times of reformation and things are not as controlled as they should be. The teens speak a slang language called nadsat. This is a language derived from Russian slang and some British terms. Alex is given the opportunity to live better while in prison if accepting to be part of a week long program to get him to change his thoughts of violence. During this program he sees films of violence after receiving a drug that makes him sick whenever he sees violence. Later on, even off the drug, every time he sees or thinks about violence his body remembers the sick feeling and he can’t help but feel sick. This changes the way he acts and thinks and stops him from being so violent. Alex, after finding his way back home arrives at his parents’ house to continue where he left off before prison. Finding out that his parents have rented out his room and thinks he has broken out of prison, he feels abandon. He is not himself anymore but now feels like an empty shell of what he used to be. He then attempts to commit suicide by jumping out of the attic window. He goes to the hospital and somehow the state doctor reverses the affects of his treatment in prison. When he is released from the hospital he no longer feels sick at the sight or thought of violence. He then does what he did all of his teenage years. He continued to build a new gang and get high just like in the beginning and assault and rape innocent people for fun.
 * A Clockwork Orange **
 * Alex**- The main character who is a troubled fifteen year old year old who spends most of his time getting high and abusing people or raping women. He goes to jail for breaking into an old ladies house and later gets sentenced for a long term for her murder. He enters a program and learns to hate violence but later returns to his old ways, thinking he has grown up.
 * Dim**- Alex’s droog (friend/gang member) in the beginning half of the book. One of his friends who would drink the drug laced alcohol with and beat people up. He is the one who challenged Alex and later is the one who chained him and got him arrested. He later is a police officer who finds Alex after being released from prison, beats him up, and drops him off in the middle of nowhere to die.
 * F. Alexander**- The man who takes Alex in shortly after he is released from prison. He is an older man who Alex, after living with for a short time, finds out he has met before. Earlier in the book Alex and his gang broke into his house and beat him and his wife and made him watch as Alex raped his wife. He doesn’t remember Alex and talks about overthrowing the government, proving to be an intelligent man by his plots. Alex leaves him and his house after becoming suspicious of F. Alexander remembering who he was and what he had done to him and his wife previously.
 * “Our pockets were full of deng…”-** This quotation explains how their pockets are full of money, said by Alex. This is slang known as nadsat which is a teenage language derived from Russian and British slang. This is used frequently throughout the book by teens and usually by gang members.
 * “What’s it going to be then, eh?”-** This quote is said throughout the book by Alex as he narrates his tale. First being a question to himself as what to do with the night of crime ahead of him and his droogs. Then whether or not to change and be good or continue with his old ways of violence while in prison. Then in the third part by asking himself if he should change and become a good, law abiding citizen of society or to just be and empty shell of what he used to be without purpose. In the final chapter he asks himself it again as if he were asking himself to choose sides; whether to continue being what he was in the beginning of the book, evil, or to change into what he should be, good. This question somewhat reveals the main internal conflict of the book being the battle between good and evil raging inside Alex.
 * “…nor to do the ultra-violence on some shivering starry grey haired ptitsa…”**- Here Alex describes how they rape an old grey haired woman. This quote also shows the use of the nadsat language and how they show no compassion even for an old woman.
 * 1)** **Where does the story take place and what is the common language Alex, his gang, and the rival gangs speak?**
 * 2)** **What causes Alex to feel sick at the thought of violence after the experimental treatment given to him while in prison?**
 * 3)** **What causes Alex to change his habits back to his old ways at the end of the story?**