ipl-logo

Nadsat In A Clockwork Orange

1057 Words5 Pages

In literature, especially novels taking place in the future in the dystopian genre, the society has normally changed so much that either the main language has changed entirely, or that new languages are formed in order for sub-cultures or opposition groups to still develop and operate without conforming. In the case of quasi-dystopian novel “A clockwork Orange” The protagonist and his group of friends speak an argot called Nadsat. In many of these books the language not only serves to add depth to the setting, but also adds heavier meaning to the dialogue and themes portrayed via characterization in the book. For example, in “1984” the language “Newspeak” is extremely robotic, with a set amount of words, with most emotional concepts lacking …show more content…

he even starts fantasizing about being a family man after talking with his more matured former gang member (Burgess, 202). A very interesting attribute of the last few chapters is that Alex’s use of nadsat drops in frequency when compared to him at the beginning of the book. This addressed indirectly in “Nadsat: The Argot and its implications in Anthony Burgess’s, A Clockwork Orange”. It says “That is not to say that the author is totally unconcerned with moral values. No doubt he deplores the actions of Alex as much as we do. What he is doing is creating a hopeless version of society taken over by youth. The youth do not share the values of their elders, nor do they admit any sort of normal associations with them. Parents are not obeyed, nor do they set examples. The best that can be hopes for in the world of Burgess is that the young will eventually grow up into copies of their parents.” (Evans, 409) This statement provides support that not only does the counterculture not conform to society, they operate independent from it, and a normal attribute of a society independent of another is another language. As Alex starts integrating mentally and socially into the “adult world” his language adjusts

Show More
Related

  • Alex Mccandless Research Paper

    1879 Words  | 8 Pages

    To begin with the first Scope The situation that Alex was in during his adolescence needs to be explained. Alex’s parents were “Billie” and “Walt” McCandless Walt being an accomplished scientist working for NASA and later running his own business. This was Walt's second marriage and he had 6 children before his relationship with Billie . Alex had a younger sister and they were overwhelmingly close she would listen to many of the rants that Alex would have

    Read More

  • Syntax And Diction In Anthony Horowitz's Scorpia

    1225 Words  | 5 Pages

    As a matter of fact, he is loyal to him because he starts primitive training with him until he is as good of an assassin as his dad was, but when he finds out that his dad did not work for Scorpia he turned his back on all of Scorpia. In contrast, another theme is disloyalty towards others, for example, Alex is disloyal to Julia Rothman when he wears the retainer in his mouth that has a tracking device in it. He wanted to do this in case he got in trouble, he would start the tracker, so m16 could come help him. Moreover, this contributes to the theme of disloyalty by showing that Alex no longer wanted to be a part of Scorpia. Alex no longer wants to be a part of Scorpia because he has found out that they actually killed his dad.

    Read More

  • Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

    1072 Words  | 5 Pages

    Although it is nearly impossible to get an entirely accurate count, there exist at least 6,500 languages (Leonard et. al., 59). Something tells me that if language were about something as simple as communication, that number would be smaller. In all actuality, people feel deeply connected to their native languages for another reason. Language and culture are one and the same, and Gloria Anzaldua illustrates this in her piece “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” using examples of changes and suppressions of her language, to represent changes and suppressions of her culture as a whole.

    Read More

  • George Carlin's Influence On American Culture

    851 Words  | 4 Pages

    This alternative place in society rejected “the dominant values and behavior of society,”1 yet it is through his work geared toward them that Carlin had the most success. Counterculture rejects sameness, but so does Carlin; these similar viewpoints, in the end, embody sameness in itself. Each person in society looks for the group who shares their views, in the end society craves sameness; without it, individuals would be left to try to understand the world in their

    Read More

  • Greg Graffin's Anarchy In The Tenth Grade

    703 Words  | 3 Pages

    Greg Graffin’s Anarchy in the Tenth Grade represents the in-group theory presented by Gordon Allport. The in-group theory proposes that people belong to cliques, some by choice and others by chance, and society affects or has influences on these in-groups through equal out-groups. Mr. Graffin explains how it feels to be a new kid in a new school and how he became a punker. Mr. Graffin explains his endeavours through the in-group “punk” and also expounds on how different out-groups react to his in-group.

    Read More

  • Portnoy's Complaint Analysis

    209 Words  | 1 Pages

    His parents praise and badger him until Alex finds himself in a paradoxical position: his family considers him as “princes…and saviours and sheer perfection on the one hand, and such bumbling incompetent, thoughtless, helpless, selfish, evil little shits, little

    Read More

  • Comparing The Elite In The Great Gatsby And The Age Of Innocence

    1128 Words  | 5 Pages

    Society is constantly under the criticism of authors. Many writers seek to expose certain aspects of American society and their scorn of it. Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald are renowned for their work on this subject. In The Great Gatsby and The Age of Innocence, Fitzgerald and Wharton reveal their cynicism of the societal elite; they find the elite as a severe detriment to American society. Through symbolism and the characterization of their main characters, Wharton and Fitzgerald similarly depict the societal elite as depriving American society from a promising future by refusing to let go of the past.

    Read More

  • A Clockwork Orange Coming Of Age Analysis

    869 Words  | 4 Pages

    Though Burgess felt A Clockwork Orange was one of his worst works, I’ll have to disagree and say that a couple of aspects of his novel makes it one of the best books I’ve ever read. What sets A Clockwork Orange apart from other coming of age stories is that Alex does

    Read More

  • The DH Sparknotes

    1460 Words  | 6 Pages

    Alex changes throughout the story because at the start he is a jealous person and he doesn’t give his girlfriend Christine much freedom to do what she wants. This side of Alex changes though as he starts to realize that he has to trust Christine more and give her some more freedom. For example, this is shown when Alex starts to realize that he cannot always say the first thing that comes to mind. The text states, “Alex spent a large chunk of the night dancing with Christine, losing her just once when he went to get drinks and found her dancing naturally with Matt. Even that didn’t really bother him”

    Read More

  • Freedom In Into The Wild

    1044 Words  | 5 Pages

    He lives only by obeying to his own rules and the rules of nature but not following the law. Alex lives at his own interest. At one point, he is caught shooting a deer and is caught in between trouble because no Alex actually exists and also that he did not have a hunting license. When he Is finally let go he refuses to go get a hunting license because he believes that the government has authority to know Alex’s business and know what he hunts and what he eats. This goes back to the way that he wats to be free but also free from the entire world.

    Read More

  • Rebellion In John Updike's A & P

    1682 Words  | 7 Pages

    It obviously reshapes our view of the world and our own personal identities. Literature always emphasizes on the fact that we can always rebel against the society. “A&P” by John Updike was a famous and unique short story, about a nineteen years old checkout boy named Sammy, who quit his job to rebel his manger’s angry attitude towards the three young girls who are only covered by swimming suits. Those girls represented our new generation who will never be considered to be the socially accepted norm. Moreover, it describes the rebellious energy that our generation can use to change the whole world around

    Read More

  • Boyhood Movie Analysis

    1504 Words  | 7 Pages

    The movie targets the attitude of parents towards their children and how their smallest decisions effects their children’s life and psychology more than anything. Further, the movie successfully brings out the theme of colonialism and the means of liberation, and how subjugation can result into something really productive, for Mason it helped spend time in his dark room or behind his camera. After a meta-analysis and several interviews with Ellar (Mason) , it was found out that in the span of those twelve years, Ellar had to go through similar ordeals. He was homeschooled against his wishes initially, as his parents wanted to keep him around and not to let him get exposed to the following stardom and consequently colonising him. Linklater gambled by opting to shoot the movie for 12 years, but it wasn’t possible to bring out the essence coming of age in any other way because of which Boyhood wonderfully captures the transformation of a boy to a

    Read More

  • Government Control In Clockwork Orange

    1714 Words  | 7 Pages

    Burgess is addressing the prevalent state of society as he sees the destructive behaviors around him: teen violence, authoritarian government, and corruption. Seeing this corruption around him, he believes that government should not have omnipotent authority over its people. Simply, each individual should be able to regulate their own growth. As they fall into states of aberration, it is their own job to find the path again. Being forced back onto another path is simply stopping their growth from becoming a mature adult, who is able to reasonably produce decisions on their own.

    Read More

  • A Clockwork Orange Psychological Analysis

    786 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alex has no regard whatsoever for the rights of others and the rights of society; the behaviour mentioned is common amongst psychopaths. Alex, spent his youth stealing, torturing,

    Read More

  • The Hobbit Language Analysis

    776 Words  | 4 Pages

    Each invented language in his works plays an important role in the evolution of events and development of the characters in the story. Language and literature go hand in hand, however it is important for the dialogue of the story because it's one of the main ways for characters to communicate and interact with the world around

    Read More

More about Nadsat In A Clockwork Orange

Open Document