Mechanism vs. Organism: Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange

Rabinovitz, Rubin. "Mechanism vs. Organism: Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange." Modern Fiction Studies 24 (Winter 1978-79): 538-41.

Does little with mechanism/organism but useful for summarizing and discussing the significance of the final chapter of Clockwork Orange in the unshortened form of the novel published in the UK (London: Heinemann, 1962), and now available in the US. "Alex" the anti-hero of Orange, "concludes that . . . each young man undergoes a period of existence as a violent, mechanical man; then he matures, gets greater freedom of choice, and his violence subsides . . . " (539). (Rich Erlich cautions that what we see in the first 20 chapters of the novel is that the nastiness of men and women sometimes just gets more subtle, a point which may come through against the intentions of the author.)