Final Book Comparison

With one last post remaining this marking period, I am going to analyze the characters presented in the two books I have read. To remind you, the books were A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao. Alex DeLarge in Clockwork and Mai of Monkey Bridge are both surprisingly the same age, but they have developed into two completely different people. Despite their differences, they still illustrate the common thoughts and dreams of a teenager growing up in an unknown world.

Growing up

Teenagers find themselves in between childhood and adulthood. It is a stage in their lives where they leave the protection of their parents and start to live independently; however, they are still vulnerable to the many menacing forces the real world can throw at them. In Monkey Bridge, Mai is only 13 years old when she comes to America. In her transformation to becoming an adult, she sets out to discover the true past of her family and unveil knowledge about the Vietnam conflict as an insider. She works hard to prove herself and complete her goal. Her innocence is depicted though her misunderstanding of her family history, but in the end she becomes enlightened and develops a great understanding for her heritage.

Although Alex DeLarge in Clockwork is not presented in a family situation, he is still considered a teenager who is trying to prove himself in the real world. He is constantly trying to impress his gang and trying to define himself by doing bolder and more dangerous acts then his friends. Unfortunately in Alex’s case, the world he is in takes advantage of him and Alex becomes a victim of the Ludovico technique. After he is taken off this sadistic therapy, Alex starts the transformation into an adult. He looks to a future without violence and staring a family as an adult.



This theme also ties into our fourth marking period projects as we start our rite of passage from grade school students to college students. In college, students need to take a lot moe responsibility for their own work since there aren’t parents and teachers pressuring them to work hard. This is a new situation all the seniors will be facing as we transform from dependent teenagers to fully functioning adults. The Personal Improvement Project is one of the major step that will help with this change. I don’t know what I will be doing for the project yet, but I will blog post about my ideas in the next week.

Until next time…

BYE!!!!!