Shahmeer Butt IB English Lang Lit A Clockwork Orange Word Count: 986

Passage Analysis

The passage on pages 26 and 27 that begins with Then, brothers, it came is a passage from the book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is a very important passage in the book as it gives the reader a very open and honest insight of the books main character Alex.

The passage is one of the most important passages in the development of Alex as a character and it tells the reader of Alexs tastes, thought process and interests. The passage takes place when Alex comes back from the first night of attacks in the Part 1 of the book. In this passage, Alex is in his room, lying on his bed while listening to his passion that is classical music. In this passage, Alex describes the music he is listening to with a sincere passion, he brings the music alive and the music helps him reach another high. This passage also shows the link between music and violence and Alexs imagination and passion for violence. This passage also shows the family life that Alex has at home and the lack of regard for his parents sleep. It shows the lifestyle that Burgess imagined the children would have in the future when this book war written.

This passage is a huge insight to the themes in the book. The passage is based around music, violence, and slang. The passage is centered on the fact that Alex is lying in his bed and to relax, he is listening to his favorite classical music and in the first half of the passage and Alex is describing the music. The second half of the passage links another passion of Alex to music. The second half of the passage links violence and music in Alexs life. The second half of the passage clearly describes Alex raping two young girls and the passage describes the pain and torture suffered by the girls that Alex imagines that he rapes. Alex reaches this climax due to the music and this passage clearly links his love for music and violence and defines Alex as a character.

The passage is narrated in first person and our narrator is Alex who is the main character and an anti-hero. The book provides a fascinating experience within the mind of a violence loving, music loving, and power hungry teenager who is making the most of his free time by committing crime and not doing anything useful. Burgess has written this book in a view that Alex is telling the readers a story. He often refers to himself as Your Humble Narrator in the book and this passage is the same as he refers to the readers as Brothers. The effect of having Alex as a narrator is evident in this passage and throughout the book. In this passage, the reader gets to see how Alex thinks, what he enjoys, his negligent attitude towards his parents, his love for classical music and his interesting passion for violence. The reader experiences gruesome thoughts that Alex thinks about and pictures the scenes of rape that Alex imagines in his head. Alex is the only character in the book that readers can personally relate to and understand all of Alexs views and how he is feeling at every point in the book. The readers

can feel sympathetic towards Alex in the book due to him narrating the book and can even start to like him towards the end due to the torture faced by Alex in the book.

The passage has a lot of literary devices and unique methods to entice the reader. The passage starts off with Alex showing that he is comfortable with the readers by calling us brothers. Then the passage shows a reference to sex, religion and ecstasy, which is bliss, bliss, and heaven. The language used by Anthony Burgess in this book is a combination of English and NASDAT that is a slang language based on Russian. There are several examples in this passage from NASDAT for example nagoy which means naked or my Gulliver on my rookers on the pillow, glazzies close, rot open in bliss, slooshying the sluice of lovely sounds which means hand on the head on the pillow, eyes closed, narrowing of lovely sounds. Burgess describes music with personification that shows Alexs close connection and understanding of music for example the trombones crunched or a simile, which was those strings were like a cage of silk round my bed. The passage also shows the violence in Alexs mind and he clearly describes a rape scene using language for example I was smecking all over my rot and grinding my boot in their litsos. or lying on the ground screaming for mercy. During this passage, Burgess also shows Alex speaking archaic or Shakespearean language for example Oh, it was wonder of wonders. The author also makes biblical references with the phrase gorgeosity made flesh. The author has used many different literary devices and literary styles in order to make the book interesting and make Alexs character unique for the readers. The language Alex uses in the book can sometimes scare the reader but

it also helps the reader understand Alex and even feel sympathetic towards him or like him a little towards the end of the book.

The passage on pages 26 and 27 that begins with Then, brothers, it came is a passage from the book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is a very important passage in the book as it gives the reader a very open and honest insight of the books main character Alex. The passage shows Alex as a violent music-loving teenager who has no care for his victims except maybe he wishes he could hit them harder. He has no regard for his parents and does not seem to care that they sleep using sleeping pills.