Analysis of Theme Through The Protagonist in Anthony Burgess' 'A Clockwork Orange'.

(1)

ABSTRACT

Dalam Tugas Akhir ini saya menganalisis sebuah novel berjudul A Clockwork Orange karya Anthony Burgess, seorang penulis novel terkenal abad ke-20 yang lahir di kota Manchester di negara Inggris dan sebelumnya aktif bekerja sebagai penterjemah, kritikus dan jurnalis.

Dalam kehidupan manusia, lingkungan memiliki pengaruh yang kuat dalam perilaku mereka. Manusia cenderung melakukan keinginan-keinginan, nafsu dan memuaskannya dengan cara yang tidak bisa diterima oleh masyarakat, seperti merusak, mencuri dan melakukan kekerasan. Novel tersebut pada intinya mengambarkan perbuatan-perbuatan seseorang yang berlawanan dengan interpretasi aturan-aturan yang berlaku di masyarakat serta dampak dari perbuatannya tersebut. Dengan keadaan seperti itu, pemuasan keinginan-keinginan tersebut berpengaruh pada dampak dan nilai pada kehidupan orang itu sendiri.

(3)

APPENDICES

SYNOPSIS OF A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Alex is a boy of 15 years old. He is young and aggressive, and he wants to create his own world by committing crimes. He lives a normal life like the other kids of his age but he has destructive behaviour as he likes involving himself in violence. He and his three-member gang like breaking the law and harming people in the society. As the leader of his gang, Alex often tells them to spend their nights in the town creating chaos. They steal cars, fight with other gangs, and break into people’s houses. Alex even rapes a woman, which causes her to lose her life.

(4)

never go back to his parents’ house. When Alex wanders alone in the street, he meets the gang members who have been beaten by his gang before. They take their chance to revenge on him and beat him up. Then the police come and separate them. It turns out that the police are Alex’s former gang members. Realizing this, the police do not help him but hit him again and again. The hitting is in revenge for Alex’s bad behaviour towards them. After being beaten black and blue, Alex is dying. Walking slowly in the rain, he finds a big house nearby and asks for help. The owner of the house helps him but later he realizes that Alex is the boy who has broken into his house and raped his wife. The man tries to take a revenge on him. Knowing the fact, Alex feels desperate. He tries to commit suicide by jumping from the building. Nevertheless, Alex’s attempt fails and then he is taken to hospital and he gets treatment for his mental state.

Hearing that Alex is taken to hospital, his parents get worried and come to the hospital to visit him. They can see how much Alex has suffered and then they forgive each other. Finally, Alex can go on with his life, realizing his mistakes. He tries to lead a better life in the future.

BIOGRAPHY OF ANTHONY BURGESS

Jon Anthony Burgess Wilson, who was also called Joseph Kell, was born in Manchester, England on 25 February 1917 to a Catholic family of Irish and Scottish ancestry. Burgess studied at Xaverian College and Manchester University, where he studied English language and literature, and he graduated in 1940.

(5)

Burgess had also written several biographies. Among his works are The Wanting Seed (1962), Honey for the Bears (1963) and Man of Nazareth (1979). The author's first love was music; he composed a number of works before publishing his first books. One of Burgess' best-known novels is A Clockwork Orange (1962).

(6)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The reason I choose a novel to analyse in my thesis is because this literary work is interesting and easy to understand. The characters, the events, the plot or the settings in a novel are usually described clearer than in the other forms of literature. Most of all, the moral message conveyed in a novel can be comprehended easily and more deeply because of the details given in a novel.

(7)

for he is always judged as a criminal or a bad person by the society. This will lead him to suffer in his life.

Anthony Burgess is considered as one of the talented English writers. In his life he had produced many literary works. Burgess liked travelling and he spent most of his life visiting many different countries. Therefore, his works were influenced by his experiences in the countries he had visited, for example the Malayan trilogy The Long Day Wanes, and after he visited Brunei, he produced Devil of a State. Burgess mostly wrote about crime, love, marriage, homosexuality and pornography as the main subjects of his works.

I would like to analyse theme in my thesis. Theme is one of the major aspects in literature. Theme plays an important role in a literary work for it conveys the author’s purpose in writing the literary work. Theme is ‘the purpose of the story’ (Laurence Perrine 106). Without knowing the theme of a literary work, the readers will never understand the meaning of the work; consequently, the messages which the author wants to tell the readers may not be successfully delivered to them. In reading a literary art work, the readers must pay attention to all the details of the story such as the plot, the characters and the settings because all of them are presented to help build the theme of the literary work. In Perrine’s Story and Structure theme is defined as ‘the central and unifying concept of the story. Therefore, it must account for all the major details of the story’ (108).

(8)

breaks the law, the readers will finally sympathize with him. Seeing the fact that the protagonist has to suffer a lot in his life, the readers can understand his feelings and thoughts deeply. Burgess has created such a good novel that it is worth analysing the book.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

I want to formulate the statements of the problems as follows: 1. What is the theme of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange? 2. How does the protagonist helps reveal the theme of the novel? 3. What moral values are found in this novel?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purposes of the study are based on the above problems: 1. To show the theme of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. 2. To show how the protagonist help reveal the theme of the novel. 3. To show the moral values found in this novel.

METHOD OF RESEARCH

(9)

ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

(10)

CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having analysed Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, I conclude that Burgess has successfully presented the theme of the novel. Through Alex, the protagonist of the novel, Burgess vividly describes the unruly and rebellious teenager who likes committing crimes just for enjoyment. Furthermore, Burgess gives a clear picture of Alex’s unending suffering. Alex’s speech and actions are mostly used to support the theme of the novel.

I find that the novel has a very clear theme: “Committing violence and behaving destructively will only lead one to suffer in his life”. The main problem presented in the novel is Alex’s enjoyment of committing crimes. He finds amusement in behaving destructively. What’s more, Alex does not realize that he will have to suffer the consequences of his acts of violence. Later, however, Alex is punished for his criminal acts and the punishments fit his crimes for he really suffers in his life.

(11)

be regarded as a hero among his friends. Moreover, he enjoys vandalism. Alex likes to find amusement at night. Together with his gang members and without any special reasons, Alex commits violence. Alex even rapes a writer’s wife, which causes her to lose her life. Alex is finally caught by the police after he breaks into an old lady’s house and murders her. He is sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Then Alex has to pay for his wickedness. He gets his punishments from the government and the society. In prison Alex suffers a lot because he often gets the constant beatings from the prison guards and his inmates. Alex cannot stand being in prison; therefore, Alex decides to take an experimental rehabilitation program which is called Ludovico’s Technique. It turns out that Alex has to undergo more suffering. He is forced to watch movies showing the cruelty of the Nazi and the Japanese torture. Through this program Alex is forced to be unable to commit violence for every time he thinks about it, he will feel sick and nausea. This program really makes him suffer. After he is released from prison, he is also punished by the society. He faces a lot of problems with his parents and the society. They cannot accept him back and this causes him to suffer hardship. Unable to endure more suffering, he thinks of suicide. His acts of violence finally lead him to suffer physically and mentally.

(12)

around him cannot accept him and they hate him. Most of them try to revenge on him. These are the punishments he gets for his crime.

Burgess is successful in revealing his message through this novel so that the readers can get the moral lessons from the story. I can learn that most teenagers have unruly and rebellious characteristics; however, they have to be able to control their emotion, behaviour and desire to commit crimes. They live in a society and they have to respect other people’s rights. In addition, teenagers should adhere to the law and the regulations. What’s more, it is important for them to believe in God and fear Him so that they can understand the difference between ‘good’ or ‘evil’. Through this novel, I also find that it is difficult for a person to change from ‘bad’ to ‘good’ because the society cannot accept a bad person even though he has already repented of what he has done. They expect to punish him in their own way. Therefore, it is true that committing crime and behaving destructively will only lead one to suffer in his life.

(13)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Murphy, M. J. Understanding Unseen. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1972. Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure. New York: Harcourt Bruce and Jovanovich Company, 1959.

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw – Hill, Inc., 1972.

Internet Websites

Wikipedia.com: Anthony Burgess. 2007. 26 August 2007

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Burgess>.

Anthony Burgess.com: Anthony Burgess. Sant Jordi. 2007. 26 August 2007 <http://www.beifaust.tripod.com./AnthonyBurgess.htm>. Heroeswiki.com: A Clockwork Orange. 2007. 28 August 2007

<http://heroeswiki.com/A_Clockwork_Orange>. Sparknotes.com: Clockwork orange. 2007. 28 August 2007

<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/clockworkorange/context.html>.

Primary Text