Part 3

• Engels
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

Goals for today 

Part 2 consideration of the Ludovico technique 

Some comprehension questions 

Reading about conditioning in education 

Debating the for and against of this technique 

Paper 2 study guide preparation 

What's it going to be then, eh? 

Part 3 - chapter 1 

When Alex returns to his parents house, he finds that he is not welcome. His room has been rented out, and his parents prefer to have Joe, the lodger, stay rather than take Alex in. Upon learning this, Alex becomes depressed and says that his parents will never see him again.

Part 3 chapter 1  discuss these questions

1. Does Alex deserve the treatment he receives from his parents? 

2. Why are they unwilling to get rid of Joe? Would you let Alex stay? 

3. Where will Alex go now that he is homeless? 

4. What would you say to Alex's parents if you were in his position? 

5. What would you have to do to make your parents kick you out?

Goals for today 

Part 3 chapters 1 - 3 

Repressive government control

Paper 2 considerations -26th November 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Obstinate

Word of the day

Obstinate (adj) - unreasonably determined, especially to act in a particular way and not to change at all, despite what anyone else says

Are there character(s) or events that we have met in our literary explorations that you could describe as obstinate ? 

He is always charming, but he will be as obstinate at the end of the party as he is at the beginning.

Step inside 

Imagine that they are Alex's Pee or Em, then write a letter to Alex explaining in detail why you won't let him stay.​

Think carefully about the experiences, shown in the novel, that you have had as Alex's parent. 

Part Three - chapter 2 

We see a new side to Alex. He is miserable, and is contemplating suicide. He goes to the library to read a book on the subject, but runs into one of his previous victims. The old man and his friends beat Alex, who is helpless due to the effects of the Ludovico Technique. 

Alex is feeling very sorry for himself. Do you, as the reader, feel sympathy for Alex? if so, is this the first time that you have felt sympathetic towards the protagonist? 

Part Three - chapter 2 and Part One chapter 

Part One chapter 1 p. 6 - 8

Part Three chapter 2 p.107 -p.109

Write one or two comparative paragraphs comparing and contrasting the beating Alex gave the old man at the beginning of the novel to the beating received by the same man and his friends in the library. 

Goals for today 

Repressive government control

Exploring the two endings of the novel 

Global issues and the novel 

Paper 2 considerations -26th November 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Sardonic

Word of the day

Sardonic (adj) - humorous in an unkind way that shows you do not respect someone or something: showing an amused attitude toward someone or something that suggests a criticism but does not express it

Are there character(s) or events that we have met in our literary explorations that you could describe as sardonic  ? 

When he smiles (which is seldom), his demeanour is sardonic.

Part Three - chapter 3 

Alex is surprised to find that the police officers who come to his "rescue" at the library are in fact former gang-members Dim and Billyboy. Here, Anthony Burgess shows readers that the authorities are often no better than the criminals because they are sometimes the same people.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58746108

www.bbc.com

Part One and Part Three 

Find quotes as evidence to show that the government has become more repressive since Alex was roaming the streets with his droogs. 

Half the class finds quotes from Part One illustrating the high rate of criminality and lack of police and governmental control. 

Half the class finds quotes from Part Two  and Three illustrating repressive police and governmental control. 

Note page numbers - you will share with the rest of the class. 

Quotes illustrating a lack of control in Alex's society

Quotes illustrating a repressive control in Alex's society

part one 

"there's no law nor order no more.'" p 12

"'What sort of a world is it at all? Men on the moon and me spinning round the earth like it might be midges round a lamp, and there's not no attention paid to earthly law nor order no more.'" p. 13

'the whole district had been very quiet on the whole, so the armed Millicent's or razz patrols weren't round there much, being more north of the river these days." p. 9 

" You never really saw many of the old bourgeois type out after nightfall those days, what with the shortage of police and we fine young malchickiwicks about" p. 6 

part three 

"I think that you can help dislodge this overbearing Government. To turn a decent young man into a piece of clockwork should not, surely be seen as any triumph for any government, save one that boasts of its repressiveness.'" p. 116 

"The police are fond of bringing their victims to the outskirts of this village. But it is providential that you, who are also another kind of victim, should come here." p. 114 

"'Another victim', he said, like sighing. ' A victim of the modern age.'" p. 113 

"Streets must be kept clean in more than one way.' p.111

"That was all took away, son, by the police. This new regulation see, about compensation for the victims.' p. 101

"'Will not the Government itself now decide what is and what is not crime and pump out the life and guts and will of whoever sees fit to displease the Government?'" p. 118

Government control 

What are  your predictions for the government that is taking form at the end of the novel? Write one paragraph. 

Consider:

• The nature of their rule.
  
• How they maintain power.
  
• Their effect upon the people.
  

Use some of the quotes that we have collected. 

How does your response illustrate the ideas that Burgess has regarding the cyclical nature of experience? 

Goals for today 

Exploring the two endings of the novel 

Global issues and the novel 

Reviewing the unit 

Kognity & Paper 2 considerations -26th November 

Ending of the novel and film 

Burgess commenting on Kubrick’s version in his autobiography:

“A vindication of free will had become an exaltation of the urge to sin. I was worried.”

Extract from Roger Ebert’s film review:

“Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is an ideological mess, a paranoid right-wing fantasy masquerading as an Orwellian warning. It pretends to oppose the police state and forced mind control, but all it really does is celebrate the nastiness of its hero, Alex.”

Ending of the novel and film 

" "Alex's turn towards a "conventional" life at the end of the novel also sees him turning away from what is vitally inventive and interesting in his use of language, and embracing a borrowed and stilted discourse. Significantly, his vision of a "grown up" life is also derivative and repetitive, taken from the unpalatable and pretentious life presented to him by Pete and his new wife Georgina [...] It is a life of "smallness", ("small flat", very small money"), name dropping ("you wouldn't know Greg"), and triviality ("wine-cup and word-games"). The most that can be said for it is that it is "harmless" (p.138 - 139), although as the rest  of the novel shows, passive conformity to society's discourse and values is its own evil." 

"Clockwork" Language Reconsidered: Iconicity and Narrative in Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" by Robbie B. H. Goh

Ending of the novel UK and USA publications 

1. Which ending do you prefer and why? 

2. Considering the variation in the possible endings of the novel (variations being stopping at Chapter 6 or ending the novel with Chapter 7), what is the impact of each choice?

Compare/contrast, including a discussion of:

• the impact on the structure of the novel,

• impact on Burgesses purpose and themes,

• and also, variations in language and syntax.

Use evidence in your response. 

At least two paragraphs 

Global issues 

• Find a key extract in the novel, of less than 40 line, that you think illustrates a global issue. 
  
• It can be more informative to first find an extract that you find interesting and complex, and then consider the global issues presented in this extract.
  

Global issues 

3. Again, considering the two endings, what differing Global Issues might each ending engage with? Identify them and then discuss; how do you see this issue in certain chapters and how is it incorporated into the novel as a whole?

4. Find a key passage, of not more than 40 lines, that illustrates the two global issues that you have identified. 

5. Could you find the  same global issues that you identified in another work in translation that we have read? Which work?