The book that I just finished is called A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. This book is very interesting. The main character in the book is Alex. Alex lives in a society with a totalitarian, oppressive government. In this society, people are blind to the growing violence among the youth. After committing many crimes, Alex is put in prison, and is there brainwashed to become violently ill when he even thinks about being violent. This also leaves him defenseless. One day, Alex meets a man who hopes to use Alex as a way to incite outrage against the State. However, he eventually decides to attempt to make Alex commit suicide. Alex ends up becoming back to normal, and even though he is once again capable of violence, he decides that he wants to go to a normal life.
There are many themes that occur throughout this book. One theme is the idea of free will. Alex uses his free will to be violent. However, his free will is taken away because he is brainwashed. Because Alex is displayed as the "good guy" in the story, the author is arguing that people need to have their own free will and should not be controlled, even if it has negative impacts on others. Also, the author presents anarchistic ideas. In chapter four, Alex says that modern history is the story of individuals fighting the government. The author further denounces the idea of government by presenting the government as terrible and repressive by brainwashing people the way they did to Alex.
Overall, this book was very interesting and had a lot of deep meaning.
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