As the protagonist and narrator of Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, the character of Alex is an intriguing study from start to finish. Specifically, by comparing the first and third parts of the novel, Alex's world, internally and externally, shows that his characterization and travails are mirror images of each other, both identical and inverted. Where Alex was the soulless executioner in the first part, he repeatedly finds himself a victim in the third part. Where he was once welcome at the beginning of the story, he is chased away at the end. What gives him pleasure at the beginning, gives him pain in the third part. This neat symmetrical structure clearly and symbolically portrays how much Alex has changed and what Ludovico's Technique has done to him. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In the first part, Alex, as an extremely vicious gang leader, is an arrogant 15-year-old hoodlum without a shred of sympathy for his victims. He does not appear to rape, rob, beat, or kill for money, valuables, sexual satisfaction, or other tangible things. As we saw early on in the Korova Milkbar, he is willing to spend every penny he has on drinks and snacks for old women, just "so we would have more of an incentive... for some theft [of thefts]" (8). Alex is depicted as violent and sadistically evil simply for the experience of it, for the joy of it, and not as a means to an end. He seems to gain a certain aesthetic satisfaction from engaging in evil for its own sake. He also sees his violence as a kind of art, as we see through the description of a weapon of choice. “I for my part had a splendid starry horror show merciless britva [razor] that, at the time, I could flash and shine artistically” (16). Overall, there is nothing in his background that can explain why he is so cruel and evil, why his propensity for violence is so high. As his state-appointed guidance counselor, P.R. Deltoid, tells him, “You have a nice home here, good loving parents, you don't have that bad of a brain. Is there some devil crawling inside you?” (39). Leaving this question unanswered, we see that Alex's commitment to evil is so pure that he fantasizes about nailing Jesus to a cross. Along with his violent tendencies in the first part, Alex is also portrayed as immature and irresponsible. He has no job and appears to have no responsibilities of any kind. He stays out all night, without telling his parents, sleeps all day and still expects to be fed, clothed and cared for. At the Korova Milkbar, Alex and his friends communicate in adolescent slang that is distinctly reminiscent of child speech. They use words like "appy polly loggies" for excuses, "eggiwegs" for eggs, "skolliwoll" for school, "boohooed" for cry and "fistie" for punch. These linguistic choices allude to their childishness and, in light of their illegality, their perverse infantile nature. Furthermore, in the first part Alex is described as very arrogant, self-centered, autocratic and too firmly convinced of his superiority over everyone he meets. His haughty attitude towards his gangmates eventually leads them to betray him. After losing some prestige among his group, Alex vainly assumes that taking on a robbery job on his own will prove his dominance over them once and for all. “I thought… that I would prove to these fickle, worthless droogs of mine that I was worth all three and more. I would do everything with my strange knocking [alone]” (61). He constantly underestimates everyone, typically seeing through every attempt to.
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