Violence is something that most sane people disagree with. Violence does not solve problems rather it creates them. Alex, in Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, is a troubled teen who sees violence as a way of life. At first, a reader might think that Alex is a horrible human being with no moral code what-so-ever and thus the reader grows to hate Alex. Anthony Burgess, however, makes Alex a little bit friendlier through Alex's use of slang, Nadsat. This Nadsat is the way that Alex and his hoodlum friends speak. This slang is very juvenile with words like "tolchok" that translate to mean knife. This language gives the reader the sense that Alex and his "droogs" (gang members) are not 15 and 16 years old but five or six. This language has an interesting effect on the reader. Without the Nadsat, Alex would be perceived as a menace to society and readers would feel that he should be punished with a slow and painful death. But with the Nadsat, the reader sympathizes with Alex and feels that he just needs some guidance. The Nadsat makes the horrific violence seem like a game. Alex, while showing his love for violence in his participation of repulsive acts, is given pity by the reader because of Nadsat. Nonetheless, Alex is a cruel villain who shows no remorse for his actions.
Alex loves violence and this love for violence is shown through his use of Nadsat. The greatest glory in violence for Alex is when he is attacking and mauling someone, not fighting competitively against him or her. Alex enjoys the slaughter, rape, and otherwise massacre of his victims. This infatuation with violence can be shown through his language during these attacks. When Alex and his gang find an older man with books under his arm, Alex and his gang immediately descend upon the old man. Alex shows his passion for violence when he recounts the scene beginning when "Dim yanked out his false zoobies (teeth), upper and lower. He threw these down on the pavement and then I treated them to the old bootcrush€¦The old veck (guy) began to make sort of chumbling (mumbling) shooms (noises) –€˜wuf waf wof'-so Georgie let go€¦and just let him have one in the toothless rot with his ringy fist€¦and then Pete kicks him lovely in his pot (mouth)" (7). The language that Alex uses is very entertaining and he is definitely having fun doing what he is doing. When people have fun doing things, they usually describe it with as much detail as possible, trying to relive the moment and allow the listeners to live the moment as well. The same holds true for Alex. He describes these acts with great detail, showing his pure enjoyment of the violence.
His love for violence is also shown in his description of blood. Blood is the goal that Alex tries to reach each time he commits an act of violence. During the same scene when Alex attacks the old man, Georgie punches the man in the mouth and "then out comes the blood, my brothers, real beautiful. So all we did then was to pull his outer platties (clothes) off, stripping him down to his vest and long underpants" (7). Another instance of the glorification of blood is when Alex and company are robbing a store and to keep a woman from screaming, "she had to be tolchocked (hit) proper with one of those weights for the scales, and then a fair tap with a crowbar they had for opening the cases, and that brought the red out like an old friend (10). This quote shows how simplistic the horrid violence seems to the reader. When Alex says that the lady was hit with a "fair tap", he makes it seem like he really tapped her, when in fact, he bludgeoned her with it. Calling the blood "beautiful" and an "old friend" shows how obsessed Alex is with the blood. Nadsat glorifies the blood and also shows how important it is to Alex. The Nadsat also makes the violence seem like a game in which Alex is surely having fun. This game that Alex plays is certainly an awful one and exemplifies evil and cruelty in a most villainous form.
Below is a clip from the 1971 film.
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