Entry 4

I last left Alex in an overcrowded jail cell in Staja, or state prison. The jal cell, already being crowded with six people now has seven. This new inmate, I discovered as I read on, is very rude. Alex recalls that this new prestoopnick (Nadsat for prisoner) is a very boastful fellow: "...going on that he'd done this and done the other and killed ten rozzes with one crack of his rooker and all that cal." (96).This doesn't go over well the rest of his roommates, everyone in the cell takes turns teaching the newcomer a lesson...(I can't blame them, I get urges to hit distasteful people every once in a while too)The next morning it turns out that Alex, who had the last go at the rude guy, had hit him too hard once or twice. The new inmate is pronounced dead, and the other five inmates all blame it on Alex. This makes things take a big turn for Alex, he is taken out of jail - but obviously not for release.He is made to sign a contract and is then taken to a building just a walk away from the prison.He meets Professor Branom, who seems nice enough at first. He then gets his own private room and a nice meal. These kinds of things would put anyone at ease, but as I soon find out, his stay will be anything but pleasant.Alex gets a shot injection after every meal, and then has to go to the cinema and watch some films. Too bad he's not watching an Audrey Hepburn films in there; the doctors seat him in this contraptionthat keeps his eyes open no matter what - he cannot blink. (Which leaves me to wonder how his eyes didn't dry out, but I will overlook that minor detail)Alex then is forced to watch footage of people doing all the bad things he's done - ultraviolence, robbery, gang fights, and beating up people.At first he's fine, then Alex and I both find out what the injection is for...The injection makes him really sick and queasy, thus teaching his body to be revolted by violence.The doctors are testing out this new method of reform on him - something I think is highly unethical but somewhat intriguing.It bugs me that the doctors are laughing throughout this whole thing, this whole science experiment seen throughthe eyes of the one being experimented on puts it on a whole nother level of disgusting. It's disgusting to watch torture and just laugh at it.

There was a short dialogue between Alex and the charles (or Prison Chaplain) shortly before Alex left to be a living science experiment.Although at this point Alex didn't really get anything from the conversation, it leaves me (as it probably does most readers) thinking.The thing that really got me was when the charles said, "What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness?" (106).This line is very important even if the reader isn't religious. This issue was addressed earlier in the book when Alex and his droogs raided the writer's home:"...and there was the name - A CLOCKWORK ORANGE - and i said: 'That's a fair gloopy title. Who ever heard of a clockwork orange?' Then I read a malenky bit out loud in a sort of very high type preaching goloss: ' -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 raise my swordpen-'"Anthony Burgess leaves us wondering what it is we should do.What's ethical and what's not?
I feel like this question has been raised in Anna Karenina too.Hm...

Page I left off on:111
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1962