A Clockwork Orange

For my next book, I have chosen to Read A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Many of my classmates read this book for their last project and said it was ‘unique and out of the ordinary’ to say the least. As I had done with Monkey Bridge, I did some basic web searches on the book and the author to find out what I was getting myself into. Interestingly, Anthony Burgess didn’t write much until he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in his forties. At this point he began a writing frenzy (5 books in a year) so that he could provide his wife with money after he died. It turns out that he really didn’t have a brain tumor, but he kept writing anyway. A Clockwork Orange “was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.”

The first thing anyone would notice is that the language presented in the book has some non-english aspects. Some of the words come from Russian and I am actually 100% Russian; I can speak it, but I can’t read and write in Russian. This is a great advantage because I don’t have to pickup the words from context, I can read the words as they are. For example:

Korova – Cow
Moloko – Milk
Veshches – Other Things
Deng – money
Chelloveck – person
baboochkas – ladies
viddied – look
Luna – moon
Krovf – blood
Britva – razor/shaver
Pooshkas – gun/cannon
Nochy – night
Molody - young

Deciphering the vocabulary is entertaining and keeps me interested in the book. Just as my classmates said, it is a unique story. Alex and his gang of drools use drugs and roam the streets commiting awful crimes such as rape and robbery against people they don’t even know. They drink ‘Moloko,’ the Russian word for milk, laced with various drugs they refer to as Drencrom, Vellocet, and Synthemesc. Alex, the gang leader and protagonist, is also a fan of classical music, which goes side-by-side with his thirst for violence. These analogies don’t really fit together, and I think that Burgess is trying to make a point here. Classical Music is said to calm people and help them think clearly and critically. Violence results when people don’t think clearly and get angry. By listening to classical music and associating it with violence, Burgess is showing that there is a clear problem with Alex that is rooted deep inside him and the society.



Milk is nature’s nurturing food that babies drink to grow up when they are helpless and still learning about the world around them. On the other hand, drugs damage your body, destroy the world around us, and take away your senses to act logically. Mixing these two together is the ultimate symbol of this book, a great concoction combining good, evil, logic, and insanity.

I am nearly done with part one and actually excited to continue on to part two. This is building up to be one of my favorite books, or at least one I will remember for a very long time.


A Clockwork Orange - Movie Adaptation - This scene says it all.