Entry 3

"I take it up now, and this is the real weepy and like tragic part of the story beginning, my brothers and old friends, in Staja (State Jail, that is) Number 84F." (85).

In my last entry I was left wondering what trouble Alex and his droogs would get into. The quote above pretty much answers that. I suppose he wouldn't have been punished so harshly (14 years in state prison) if he hadn't killed the old lady. I also find out that two years have passed since his little "mistake" and that Georgie has been killed in a robbery accident. Alex then starts talking about his life as a prison inmate and goes into details about how he rats out prisoners and their plots to escape to get a little favouritism from the administration there. I think this shows alot about Alex's character; no matter how rotten the criminal is, one should still be able to keep an honor code in my opinion.
Alex then goes on to explain the state of his crammed jailcell. Although there's supposed to be three to a cell, the state prison keeps six people in one tiny cell. It gets worse; Alex's cell gets a new prisoner making the final count seven. It seems like they're crammed in there like sardines or luggage rather than people. I think this shows a lot about the way the government is, and how harsh and uncaring it is in the book. Basically, i feel like the government is just saying "You've done wrong, you don't deserve to be treated like a human."

Page I left off on: 96
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1962

Entry 2

"And so I led my three droogs out to my doom." (61).

Lots of things have happened from where i last left off; in chapter four I got to find out more about Alex's world. I was surprised to find out that it parallels our world very much - skipping school, it not being safe to go out at night, tired parents, and record stores. At the record store, Alex finds to younger girls to commit ultraviolence on, but I've long since come to terms with what kind of person Alex is, so i find it "normal" (in the book's context, anyway). The thing that i found most interesting is the quote above, spoken just before Alex and his droogs are off to rob a rich old lady's house. Although I'm in the middle of reading about how this burglary went about, it's clear that this is a strong dose of foreshadowing. This foreshadowing evokes two feelings within me: an eagerness to find out what happens, but at the same time the feeling of wanting to stop reading - for I know Alex is going to get into deep trouble now.

Page I left off on: 67
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1962

Entry 1

Alex and his droogs (Nadsat - teen slang - for "friends") prowl the streets at night and prey on the elderly, weak, and naive. I was intrigued by how little he thought of all the heinous acts he'd done. He starts off the night at the Korova Milk Bar drinking alcoholic drinks (at the age of 15) and then decides that he and his friends should go out and look for someone to mess with. They end up finding a starry (Nadsat for "old") prof with some library books. I was very mad at Alex and his droogs at this point, for they beat the poor old man and ripped up all his books. I think this was a very nasty thing to do, since the man was so old. The night carries on with more brutal acts of violence - robbing a store, trashing a writer's house and harming his wife, all topped off with getting into a knife fight with another group of thugs. So far I'm intrigued and shocked at Alex's casual stance on violence, and impressed by Burgess's linguistic abilities; the use of Nadsat in this book really sets the tone of a disconnect from the youth and old.





Page I left off on: 49
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1962

Uh Yeah.

I started this blog as a reading log for the book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
I'll update this blog frequently with my thoughts on the book.

Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1962