A Developmental Study of Alex in Kubricks A Clock Essay Example For Students

A Developmental Study of Alex in Kubricks A Clock Essay work OrangeA Developmental Study of Alex in Kubricks A Clockwork OrangeSynopsis of A Clockwork OrangeIn A Clockwork Orange, the main character is that of a mildly youngchild of 15 who, along with his fellow friends, or Droogs, partake in eveningsof Ultra-Violence. Ultra Violence consists of random beatings, theft,destruction, and rape. The main character, Alex, is the self-proclaimed leaderof the pack, and makes judgment on their actions pending on his mood. His Droogseventually find themselves under his direct rule, following his every word, anddecide to challenge his authority. The three Droogs (Dim, Georgie, and Pete) join Alex on his romp to alocal fat farm to pillage the goods therein.Inside, Alex stumbles upon theowner of the resort, and after a length scuffle with her, ends up giving her ablow to the head with a rather large, ceramic replica of an erect penis. When heleaves the outer gates of the complex, Dim surprises him by smacking a milkbottle against his face. His counterparts escape while little Alex is leftbleeding and blinded to deal with the police. Upon interrogation of Alex, he discovers that the blow he delivered tothe young lady was a fatal one. He is charged with first-degree murder andsentenced to 14 years in prison. While there, he befriends the resident ministerand becomes a helper to his service. The minister, Alex soon discovers, is apart in a new form of treatment that is trying to be implemented prisons tohelp cure inmates from committing acts of violence. Through luck anddiscussion with the higher officials in the prison, Alex is chose to be a guineapig for the experiment, and is sent to become inoculated from violence. The treatment consisted of Alex being strapped down to a chair in frontof a cinema screen, having electrodes attached to his head, and being keptfocused by small pairs of clamps used to disable his ability to blink. This,along with the injection of an experimental serum, is monitored whilst he viewsmovies of UltraViolence. The serum leaves him vulnerable to his surroundings,which are destructive films, and induces such feelings of helplessness, fear,and near-death paralysis, similar to that of drowning. Alex soon associates thisfeeling of distraught with the violence, and with the background music beingplayed throughout the entire ordeal: Beethoven, Alexs main love. The finalresult is that whenever Alex is confronted with either violent acts of any kind,or the sweet strings of Ludwig Van, he is soon on his knees in pain and agony. When he is released, his parents abandon him. He meets up with a fewmembers of his old gang that have turned into crooked cops, and with theirnewfound power and long-lasting loathe of Alex, they beat him much and leave himfor dead, this of which brought on the sickness that he was conditioned for. Stumbling in the dark for help, he comes across a polite looking residence thatlooked vaguely familiar. Eventually, Alex realizes that he is in the presence ofa former victim of his, but believes that the owner would not recognize him. To his dismay, the author did recognize him after hearing Alex sing asong in a very similar fashion to the way his attackers did 2 years ago. Afterslipping a sedative into Alexs wine, Alex wakes up to find himself in a lockedroom on the second floor of an apartment high-rise. Through the floorboards,Alex starts to hear the hateful sounds of Beethoven, and goes into his sicknessfits. No exits, No escapes. His only way out is to jump out of the closed windowand end his life. He does just that. Alex wakes in a hospital. The author was jailed for attempted murder,and the government officials that started the program were ridiculed andharassed out of their positions. Alex finds himself broken and hurt, but histhoughts are that of the Ultra-Violence. Alex was cured and ready to live again. Aspects of PsychologyIn A Clockwork Orange, Alex is portrayed as two different people livingwithin the same body. As a mischievous child raping the world, he as seen asfilth. His actions and blatant disrespect towards society are categorized underthat of the common street bum. However, when he is away from his evening attire,he is that of suave. His clothing, his words, his overall attitude. Thedistinction between the two is triggered by the gentle sounds of Ludwig VanBeethoven. Language Arts Importance Essay ThesisWith the response that Alexs parents give to him in his home-life, it isobvious that they did not offer much love to the growing child. By Freudsbelief, if the child does not receive the proper love from a mother that itshould, it will find other means to replace the comfort that a mother provides. Alexs comfort was the violence and the pleasure brought from a night completed. There is no reference in the movie about Alexs parents being his naturalborn parents, or if one of them died and remarried. My beliefs are that Alexsnatural born mother was beaten and eventually left his father. Alex was in themiddle of this action, and like Banduras findings, the child imitates theaction that he views and takes it as natural, thus using it in everyday life. Alexs aggression upon society are truly the natural urges and feelings that heexperiences, thus making him normal, being unaware of the wrongs that hisviolence induces. In a Freudian aspect, this could explain a vast majority of his aggressionthat he displays. His actions interpret his hatred towards his father for beingthe reason he lacks a parental security blanket. As quoted in one of the firstfew scenes: and in the mess of wobbly chaos the drunken old malchek had foundhimself lying in, he had managed to be able to push out an ugly lyric or two. Now, the one thing that I truly hate in the world is a drunken old malcheksinging out the songs of his father with an occasional blurp,blurp inbetween., this shows his loath for 1) Disrespect for music. 2) Drunks, and 3) Men in his fathers image. The music was his salvation, for it could snap him in and out of hisdementia. The music was used in a pseudo-Pavlov experiment to eliminate Alexslove for violence. In the experiment, Alex ingested a serum that would induce adeathlike paralysis. While the serum was taking effect, he was bombarded withsights of violence and the sweet sounds of Ludwig Van Beethoven, both leaving animpression in his psyche, relating the sickness to the sights and sounds that hewas subjected to. In Pavlovs experiments, his major goal was to prove that he could train asubject to give a conditioned response with no reinforcement. This wasaccomplished by training a dog to salivate when he heard a bell ring. The dogwas use to the sound of a ringing bell before receiving his food. Eventually,Pavlov removed the food from the experiment, but the dog retained theconditioned response of salivating whenever he heard the bell ring. Thus aconditioned response without positive nor negative reinforcement. Alexsconditioned response was to fall to the sickness when subjected to Beethoven. With the sickness being the conditioned response, there is no Reinforcementbecause the sounds of Beethoven were not intentional, thus not needingreinforcement. However, Alexs trauma could also be referred to as a Skinner approach totreatment. Skinners theory was that one could achieve a conditioned response bygiving the subject positive or negative reinforcement. In his experiments, amouse was put in a cage with nothing but a pressable button and a light. Whenthe bar was depressed, the light flashed and food was delivered into the cage. If the mouse were dropped into a similar cage, it would be safe to assume thatit would retain the reaction to hit a bar and receive food. The conditionedresponse was to hit the bar when hungry. The reinforcement was the food that wasprovided by completing the response. In Alexs case, the reinforcement would bethe metal satisfaction of not going through with his violent needs when he issubjected to violent surroundings. In conclusion, the theories used as a basis behind Stanley Kubriks AClockwork Orange, resemble that of the theories that came from the greaterthinkers of modern time. Alex, the guinea pig in this tale, is a classic exampleof many psychologists case studies, and could be analyzed differently from each. Music and Movies