You're not supposed to loved the characters in this story. Nobody is doing the right thing, even when they believe that they are. One of the obvious examples of this is Alex's character where many times throughout the book he believes he has done no wrong, that he is smarter and better than everyone else and nobody should treat him wrongly. The doctors that give Alex the aversion therapy, the police, even the writer and his friends are all bad characters. What we get from this story is the philosophy of good and bad, the choice of free will and how that makes us human, and a glimpse of the abuse of psychological therapy.
I say this book is good. I rated it 5 stars, after all. However, I found myself thinking about this book after reading for the past few days. Things stuck with me. Alex is not a good character, he's a villain and he always will be in the end after having been "cured" but reverting back to his criminal ideologies. The language Nadsat would linger in my mind, how the words came almost second nature to me, though of course I do study other languages for fun so maybe the constant usage was why it stuck). And of course thinking back to the history of aversion therapy and conversion therapy and how it was all so similar to what Alex went through.
Here are my notes during reading. WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
PART ONE
-Already the book starts differently than the movie, don't hate me for watching the movie before reading the book. The boys hassle a smoke shop before the homeless man, which was not included in the movie. They sweeten up some old ladies at a diner (?) as an alibi.
-"It's a stinking world because it lets the young get on to the old like you done, and there's no law nor order no more."
-"--The attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my sword-pen" pg 27. Foreshadowing.
-Alex is the alpha of the pack, just as he was in the movie.
-Alex is a teenager, or college age student.
-Alex's dream of Georgie being a general is also foreshadowing.
-P. R. Deltoid's warning to Alex tells us that Alex has been caught and in trouble before, enough times for him to have a post corrective advisor stop to visit him in his home. Sent there by Alex's mother.
-I think it's important to note that Alex using the same "my friend has fainted" play has it's own glimpse onto Alex's intelligence. While he does make himself appear to be high and mighty, no one is smarter than me, type character, why would he use the same play to lure people into opening their doors for him? If it's worked a few times in the past to get him what he wants, eventually people will catch the repetition and become warned of that phrase. Maybe that is why the cat lady was suspicious of the phrase from the start. She'd been warned and did the right thing but denying him entry and calling the police right away. Our Humble Narrator isn't as smart as he thinks.
-Alex is 15 at the the story takes place.
-Alex's lingo has a chokehold on my every waking moment. It haunts me how fluid it feels when I'm reading it, even though I have no idea what he's saying most of the time. I do find it interesting how the author indicates that the adults in the story speak without Alex's lingo, they speak "proper".
PART TWO
-Alex is now 17.
-It seems like in the film they completely removed the second murder Alex was convicted of, which I feel would have been important towards telling his story. In the film, they show Alex having taken responsibility and showing interested in becoming a better man. In the book, Alex is still manipulative and a bad character. He hasn't learned from his crimes. He's just annoyed that he is forced to be around people he considers to be lesser than him. He's disgusted by them. He's looking in the mirror and refuses to see his own reflection.
-Aversion therapy is what is happening here, where the patient is given an undesirable stimuli while being shown images, or in Alex's case, films, in order to treat the unwanted behavior. This was also administered as treatment for "curing" homosexuality back in the day alongside castration to cure gayness. While the practice has been looked down upon and shamed for the mental harm it causes patients who underwent this treatment, unfortunately conversion therapy and aversion therapy is still practiced today. However, there are proper non-harmful ways to use aversion therapy and is sometimes recommended by therapists. Aversion therapy is a type of behavioral therapy. It is sometimes used to help treat nail biting, alcoholism (some medications used to treat alcohol abuse trigger a sick feeling response when alcohol is consumed), and smoking.
-The "vitamin" injection was the undesirable stimuli, making Alex feel weak and the showing of the criminal activities on film made Alex condition criminal activity with feeling sick. Which is why later on when Alex is kicked around and shown breasts, he becomes sick. This is similar to the alcoholism aversion therapy medication which makes the patient nauseous when they consume alcohol. The author writing about this therapy did a great job at expressing the thoughts and actions and makes me wonder if he did this on purpose or if it was accidental.
-Alex is quickly beginning to realize the horrors he had committed. While it was fun and games for him before, now having the undesirable stimuli to punish his behavior is teaching him that crime is not fun and games.
-I wonder why they didn't show a scene of Alex hitting his head against the wall and showing sickness from it in the film. I feel they grazed over this part of the book, showing Alex and the films, his shouting and anger at the doctors playing his favorite music, but the read pain is in Alex's physical reactions. A duality can be found between pre-cured Alex and the correctional doctors, the violence is different but still violence. Same with the police violence towards the end.
-"Am I just to be like a clockwork orange?" page 129.
PART THREE
-Alex still feels higher than everyone else, that he's more important than everyone else.
-In the end, Alex didn't learn anything. He went right back to worshipping violence.
