"Which Ending is it Gonna Be, Eh?"

So I learned some interesting trivia from one of my teachers when he discovered that I was reading A Clockwork Orange which was that there is a secret 21st chapter that was exempt from the United States copies until 1986. This prompted a major difference between the film and the book because the final scene of the movie has Alex saying “I was cured all right,” whereas most copies of the book follow a completely different narrative. The ending was written by Burgess in the original copy, but apparently the American publishers read the book they found the 21st chapter to be “a sellout, bland, and veddy veddy British." The ending that Anthony Burgess originally intended for follows Alex up to his usual shenanigans with a new gang that he formed and then describes him “not feeling himself” and prompts him to leave roam the street alone. He then runs into Pete, from the old gang, at an old cafe, and discovers that he has married a woman named Georgina. Alex talks with them for a while and when they leave he contemplates his youth and makes the determination that he is no longer young.

Now luckily my book did not include a 21st chapter (so you know less reading and such) but also there seems to be a distinct difference thematic difference between the two versions. So considering I did not have a 21st chapter, I be exploring the meaning as a whole of the shortened version of the book. I will however compare the two endings a bit in how they change the thematic points because I find these two endings quite an interesting concept.

Now I think the biggest hint that was given to the reader about the meaning as a whole was in one of the earlier sections of the novel. It’s quite a disturbing scene, but Alex and his gang essentially break into the home of an author and his wife and they discover this book that the author is writing. Alex reads a bit of this novel out loud:

“‘ - The attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my sword-pen -’” (25).

Turns out this book is titled A Clockwork Orange too. Considering the book inside the story is the same name as the novel it seems to hint at its significance, which happens to be my opinion about what the meaning as a whole is. The idea of the passage is that the author disagrees with the concept of government laws and conditions being imposed on man to attempt to control them. He raises his sword-pen in disagreement. And do we see government imposing their ways on characters in the novel? Well yes, actually, there’s quite a bit of that. Alex, while incarcerated, discovers a way for him to get out of prison early. He requests this technique from the prison chaplin at one point:

“‘I take it you're referring to Ludovico's Technique.’ He was still very wary. ‘I don't know what it's called, sir,’ I said. ‘All I know is that it gets you out quickly and makes sure that you don't get in again,’” (77).

So what is this Ludovico Technique? Well I can rely a bit on my old AP Psych knowledge from last year and the idea is essentially to classically condition Alex to associate violence and sexual concepts with feeling ill. So you have your unconditioned response, which is feeling ill in this case, and then you have your neutral stimulus (which is not necessarily neutral in this case) which is the images of violence and sex. So when constantly given these drugs that make Alex feel ill, directly followed by the videos Alex watches, he implicitly associates these concepts together and then is “cured” of his violent tendencies. Also just a note here too, they also play classical music during the videos which sort of ruins classical music for Alex as well and causes him to jump out a window in another scene.

So the ending right? It’s a short and sweet piece of dramatic irony which I think makes for a better ending than the one Burgess originally intended. So the idea of The Clockwork Orange that is discovered in the author’s home, which by the way ironically and somewhat unknowingly works with Alex in the later half of the book, is that the government and scientists shouldn’t try to control other people. Though they think they’re doing something by trying to “cure” Alex it doesn’t work, and it makes him feel empty and without a purpose. Sure he’s a terrible human-being, but that’s not exactly the point the novel is trying to make. Alex didn’t change despite all of the efforts of the scientists and that sort of irony suggests that he wasn’t supposed to. The people should be left to what they wish to do, and you can’t really change who they fundamentally are.

This kind of the point behind the title, which I admit I actually had to have explained to me instead of thinking on my own, which is that you can’t make an orange function like a clock. I actually find that rather clever.

Now compare that to the ending in which Alex discovers his place and the world and decides he has to move on from his life and you have an different thematic point entirely. Sure, the cure didn’t actually work artificially, but Alex ends up naturally discovering that he must change which does not have quite the kick that the other ending does with the final line. It’s still ironic, but not in a blunt sense, which changes it from a strong thematic emphasis on control and change, to a split emphasis on getting older and changing your ways. Still interesting trivia though.