Running head: CENSORSHIP OF A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Censorship of A Clockwork Orange

Huanvy Phan
McClintock High School: AC AP ENG LAN/COMP
January 30, 2015

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Abstract
This paper discusses the plot of Anthony Burgesss A Clockwork Orange as well as the history of
its censorship, the graphic violence that caused its censorship, an analysis of the censorship of
the novel, and an analysis of why literature as a whole should not be censored.

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Censorship of A Clockwork Orange

One of the most controversial and censored novels of all time, Anthony Burgesss novel
A Clockwork Orange explores the morality and redemption of mankind through the psychopathic
protagonist, Alex. A Clockwork Orange provides many reasons for censorship, but the novel as
whole brings up many redeeming qualities that ensure it a safe spot on many library shelves.
Summary of A Clockwork Orange
Published in 1962, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess takes place in a dystopian
society filled with ordinary, complacent citizens and ultraviolent youths. The main character,
Alex, is a sadistic fifteen-year-old boy who uses a form of teenage slang called nasdat. The novel
is split up into three parts.
Part One is comprised of Alex his gang of ultraviolent youths daily activities, involving
stealing cars, beating men, gang raping women, robbing stores, fighting other gangs, and
drinking milk-plus at bars such as the Korova Milkbar and the Duke of New York. Alexs last
shenanigan involves breaking into an old womans house, but Alexs cronies betray him and
leave him to the clutches of the police.
Part Two details Alexs experiences in the state jail, or as he calls it, staja. He initially
struggles in prison; the guards are abusive and oppressive and other prisoners want to rape him.
After a few years, though, Alex adjusts and takes up an interest in the Bible. After he kills a
cellmate, Alex is selected as the first to be rehabilitated via Lidovicos Technique, a form of
brainwashing that involves the viewing of exceedingly violent films. Every time he views one of
these films, Alex is injected with a substance that makes him vomit, so Alex eventually

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associates violence with the sickening sensation. After two weeks of the treatment, Alex is
deemed a success story and he is released from prison.
Part Three tells the story of Alexs life after rehabilitation. He is completely defenseless,
and seeks refuge with a man whose wife was raped by Alex. The man does not recognize Alex,
however, so he gives Alex food and a room. The man, F. Alexander, is a political dissident, and
he uses Alexs story to spark public outrage against the State. F. Alexander then tries to drive
Alex to commit suicide so that he can blame the government, and Alex does, in fact, hurl himself
out of a building. His fall, however, was not enough to kill him, but it was enough to put him in a
week-long coma. During that week, an uprising takes place, but the government remains in
power. State doctors decide to undo the effects of Ludovicos Technique in exchange for Alexs
endorsement. Back to his normal psychopathic self, Alex assembles a new gang and participates
in ultraviolence just like when he was younger, but he soon grows tired of this life and decides to
live a normal life.
History of Censorship of A Clockwork Orange
Since its 1962 publication, A Clockwork Orange has sparked debate. In 1973, book dealer
Carol Grant in Orem, Utah, was arrested for selling three controversial novels, one of which was
A Clockwork Orange. The basis for the charge was obscenity, specifically the graphic violence in
the first seven chapters. The Aurora, Colorado School Board deemed in 1978 that A Clockwork
Orange, along with eight other books, were unsuitable for use in high schools. Although these
books had already been on designated reading lists for some English classes, the school board
issued a statement to teachers, directing that the books will not be purchased, nor used for class
assignment, nor will an individual be given credit for reading any of these books (Sova, 2006, p.
94). In 1977, parents of students in Westport, Connecticut voiced their objections to A Clockwork

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Orange, claiming that the novel contained objectionable language, and the book was removed
from all classrooms. In Anniston, Alabama, in 1982, similar situations arose, and protests led to
the temporary removal of the novel from libraries. However, it was later reinstated in the
restriction section, and students needed parent permission to read the book.
Controversial Elements of A Clockwork Orange
Much of the controversy that surrounds Burgesss A Clockwork Orange stems from
the obscene language and extremely graphic violence that takes place, especially in Part 1 of the
novel. In just the first chapter, Burgess describes a scene in which Alex and his posse beat up an
innocent man. Burgess describes: Dim yanked out his false zoobies, upper and lower. He threw
these down on the pavement and then I treated them to the old boot-crush, though they were hard
bastards like, being made of some new horrorshow plastic stuffGeorgie let go of holding his
goobers apart and just let him have one in the toothless rot with his ringy fist, and that made the
old veck start moaning a lot then, then out comes the blood, my brothers, real beautiful
(Burgess, 1962, p. 7). Such examples of graphic violence are abundant in the novel. There are
also many graphic rape scenes, such as when Alex and his droogs gang rape a writers wife: I
ripped away at this and that and the other, the others going haw haw haw still, and real good
horrorshow groodies they were that then exhibited their pink glazzies, O my brothers, while I
untrussed and got ready for the plunge. Plunging, I could sloshy cries of agonyThen after me it
was right old Dim should have his turnand Pete and George had theirs (Burgess, 1962, p. 23).
In addition to the extremely rampant violence to the novel, there are numerous drug references,
such as a concoction that Alex calls milk-plus which appears to be a mixture of milk and some
sort of hallucinogen.

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Another controversy about this novel comes in the final chapter. In the original
British version, A Clockwork Orange had 21 chapters, and the last chapter provided a sense of
closure for Alex. This was the only chapter in which the main character felt a sense of remorse
and rejected the violent lifestyle that had dominated the entirety of his life. However, Burgesss
New York publisher insisted that the American edition omit the last chapter, instead having the
novel end with Alex signing the contract with the State to undo the effects of Ludovicos
Technique, because he believed that Alex, after a lifetime of alienation, rape, torture, random
brutality, and rebellion from society as total as Mr. Burgess unsurpassed imagination could
project, is quickly brainwashed into morality and a sense of membership in the social order
(McDowell, 1986). There is much debate about which version is better, because while the British
version gives fairy-tale closure, the American edition portrays a much darker story, one without
remorse or redemption.
Analysis of Controversy
Even though the violent scenes depicted in A Clockwork Orange are extremely
disturbing, they have a great impact on the reader and are therefore extremely important to the
novel. A Clockwork Orange provides a sense of terror that is not available in any common horror
film filled with gore. This novel presents a terror that is marked by agony and despair. From the
depressing home city of Alex to the rehabilitation films that feature genocide, the novel creates a
twisted terror that cannot be found anywhere else. The graphic portrayals of violence and the
main characters immoral habits in A Clockwork Orange are crucial to the creation of this
feeling. The omission of the last chapter, additionally, finalizes the novel perfectly, showing that
a person like Alex who has spent the entirety of his childhood committing atrocious crimes will
never be able to redeem himself.

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Censorship of Literature
Although A Clockwork Orange indeed contains many controversial elements, it
should not be censored or banned because the events that happen in this novel provoke an
important discussion on good and evil. The novel asks whether or not a man who chooses the
bad [is] perhaps in some way better than a man who was the good imposed upon him (Burgess,
1962, p. 109). This statement, along with the rest of the book, allows readers to freely discuss
and question morality and Alexs motives to commit such horrendous crimes. Banning novels
such as A Clockwork Orange blinds readers from the unpleasant truth in society. The events that
occur in this novel may seem horrifying to some, but they are events that do happen in the world.
People are raped and murdered and abused every day.
Literature allows a method in which people are able to critique the horrors of society as
well as diffuse its injurious power. In Excitable Speech, Judith Butler explores this theory,
claiming that censorship and other regulations on speech destroy "something fundamental about
language and, more specifically, about the subject's constitution in language" (Butler, 1997, p.
27). Butler proposes to counter this with "subversive resignification": the insubordinate use of a
derogatory term or authoritative convention to defuse its power to injure and to expose
"prevailing forms of authority and the exclusions by which they proceed" (Butler, 1997, pp. 157158). When we censor literature that contains controversial elements or offensive speech, we
give those elements more destructive power when we treat them as an insidious, taboo subject.
Only when we can discuss these elements objectively and educate on their harms do we defuse
its power. Through censorship of literature, we prevent reconstruction of these evils that may
currently exist in society.

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References
Burgess, A. (1986). A clockwork orange. New York: Norton.
Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative (pp. 27, 157-158). New York:
Routledge.
Mcdowell, E. (1986, December 30). PUBLISHING: 'CLOCKWORK ORANGE' REGAINS
CHAPTER 21. Retrieved January 29, 2015, from
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/31/books/publishing-clockwork-orange-regains-chapter21.html
Sova, D. (2006). Literature suppressed on social grounds (Rev. ed., p. 94). New York, NY: Facts
On File.