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The novel A Clockwork Orange

The choice between good and evil is a decision every man must make throughout his life in order to guide his actions and control his future. This element of choice, no matter what the outcome, displays man’s power as an individual. Any efforts to control or influence this choice between good and evil will in turn govern man’s free will and enslave him. In the novel A Clockwork Orange, the author, Anthony Burgess, uses symbolism through imagery, the characterization of Alex, and the first person narrative point of view to prove that without the ability to choose between good and evil, man becomes owerless as an individual.

The symbolism through imagery proves how Alex’s ability to choose between good and evil is his ascendancy over the innocent and the weak. The first symbol is the music to which he listens and loves. It is the only thing in Alex’s life that he truly cares for. This music represents the element of his choice and free will. When his ability of choice is robbed in an attempt to better him, he loses his love for music. The author illustrates through Alex’s violent actions, how they represent his abuse of power through his freedom of choice.

Alex consistently chooses evil as a means to display his power over the innocent and the good. While beating and raping a young girl, he feels that he must display his power to is droogs through his abuse of choice. His love for violence symbolises his abuse of power as an evil trait, but his love for music symbolises his human side. Violence represents the abuse of power when the right of free will is controlled. Alex believes that his decision towards evil proves his freedom of choice; subsequently it also proves his abuse of the power within him.

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