Comparing Violence And Music In Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange

As the novel progressed, the obvious juxtaposition between Alex and his love of crime, while also loving classical music became more apparent. Many would believe that the two have no similarities with each other, yet Alex accepts that there is a connection with the two. As A Clockwork Orange was made into a film, a Cambridge Film Handbook was written to provide insight into the cinematic, artistic, cultural, and sociopolitical importance of individual films by including essays by leading film scholars and critics (McDougal). The handbook had many contributors, including Robert Kolker, Chair of the School of Communications and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology after teaching cinema studies for over twenty years at the University of Maryland, College Park.

However, both film and novel involved Alex’s mixture of violence and music. Contrary to popular belief, the music that Alex listens to is not either hip hop or rock-and-roll, but rather Beethoven (Kolker). There are some minute similarities between Burgess and Alex, not with violence, but with their lives. Both had families that were distant, both had a connection with music, and both would rather choose than be forced. At the beginning of A Clockwork Orange, Alex chose to be bad, and after he was forced “good,” he still had bad intentions. Nevertheless, by the end of the novel, he recognizes that the crimes that he was partaking in were not offering him solace any longer, so he was left with the choice to continue his life of crime or to become an upstanding member of society. In comparison, the original intent of Anthony Burgess was to study music. He would rather choose to major in English than be forced to attempt to find a career in music, and later in life he would have both opportunities available