It takes place in a futuristic city governed by a repressive, totalitarian super-State. In this society, ordinary citizens have fallen into a passive stupor of complacency, blind to the insidious growth of a rampant, violent youth culture. The protagonist of the story is Alex, a fifteen-year-old boy who narrates in a teenage slang called nadsat, which incorporates elements of Russian and Cockney English. Alex leads a small gang of teenage criminals—Dim, Pete, and Georgie—through the streets, robbing and beating men and raping women. Alex and his friends spend the rest of their time at the Korova Milkbar, an establishment that serves milk laced with drugs, and a bar called the Duke of New York.
Alex and his gang leave the Korova Milkbar to go on a crime spree that involves mugging, robbery, a gang fight, auto theft, breaking and entering, and rape.
The novel goes on to delve into violence between the group of friends, resulting in the boys turning against Alex. Alex gets arrested for one of the crimes, as Dim hits him in the eye with a chain so he can't get away.
Alex is sentenced to fourteen years in prison, which is difficult and harsh. He later takes an interest in religion and the chaplain, and reads the Old Testament which is full of sex, drinking and fighting to his pleasure.
One day he kills a cellmate which results in being the first candidate for an experimental treatment called Ludovico's Technique - a form of brainwashing by associative learning. He is injected by a substance which makes him sick, followed by being forced to watch violent footage. This makes him associate violence with nausea and headaches.
The process takes two weeks to complete, after which the mere thought of violence has the power to make Alex ill. Alex can no longer enjoy classical music, which he has always associated with violence. The State considers Alex’s successful treatment a victory.
After two years in prison, Alex is released, a harmless human being incapable of vicious acts. Alex finds he’s not only harmless but also defenseless, as his earlier victims begin to take revenge on him. His old friend Dim and an old enemy are police officers now, and they drive him to a field where they beat him. Alex wanders to a nearby cottage and knocks on the door; the man living there lets him in and gives him food and a room. Alex recognizes him as the man whose wife he raped, but the man does not recognize Alex, who wore a mask that night.
This man, is a political dissident and tries to exploit Alex to incite public outrage against the State. Alex, however, is tired of being exploited and berates the man in nadsat, which arouses his suspicion, who still remembers the strange language spoken by the teenagers who raped his wife. They lock Alex in an apartment and blast classical music through the wall, hoping to drive Alex to suicide so they can blame the government.
Alex hurls himself out of a window and ends up in hospital. State doctors undo Ludovico’s Technique and restore Alex’s old vicious self in exchange for Alex’s endorsement. Back to normal, Alex assembles a new gang and engages in the same behavior as he did before prison, but he soon begins to tire of a life of violence. After running into his old friend Pete, who is now married and living a normal life, Alex decides that such a life is what he wants for himself. His final thoughts are of his future son.
After two years in prison, Alex is released, a harmless human being incapable of vicious acts. Alex finds he’s not only harmless but also defenseless, as his earlier victims begin to take revenge on him. His old friend Dim and an old enemy are police officers now, and they drive him to a field where they beat him. Alex wanders to a nearby cottage and knocks on the door; the man living there lets him in and gives him food and a room. Alex recognizes him as the man whose wife he raped, but the man does not recognize Alex, who wore a mask that night.
This man, is a political dissident and tries to exploit Alex to incite public outrage against the State. Alex, however, is tired of being exploited and berates the man in nadsat, which arouses his suspicion, who still remembers the strange language spoken by the teenagers who raped his wife. They lock Alex in an apartment and blast classical music through the wall, hoping to drive Alex to suicide so they can blame the government.
Alex hurls himself out of a window and ends up in hospital. State doctors undo Ludovico’s Technique and restore Alex’s old vicious self in exchange for Alex’s endorsement. Back to normal, Alex assembles a new gang and engages in the same behavior as he did before prison, but he soon begins to tire of a life of violence. After running into his old friend Pete, who is now married and living a normal life, Alex decides that such a life is what he wants for himself. His final thoughts are of his future son.
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http://www.shmoop.com/clockwork-orange/part-1-chapter-1-summary.html
"What's it going to be then, eh?" That's how the book opens, and you'll find this question dispersed throughout; it will even close with it, coming full circle. The significance, you ask? Well, we like to think of it as a "marker" of some significance. See if you can figure it out before we tell you.
Alex and his entourage are drinking "milk-plus," which means milk laced with some type of hallucinogen or other drug. Alex describes the milk-plus experience as one that either gives you a nice fireworks-in-the-sky kind of buzz, or a lot of courage and strength.
The entourage has a lot of "deng," or money, so there's no real need to get "ultra-violent" with an old guy or gal in the alley for the dough. After all, as they say, money isn't everything.
Alex describes his entourage as dressed in the "heighth of fashion," which, at the time, means a pair of black tights, a big belt, a cropped jacket without lapels but with big, built-up shoulders, a hat, and great boots for kicking.
Alex observes three girls at the bar also dressed in the "heighth of fashion," what with expensive colorful wigs on, makeup to match, and long black dresses with badges displaying the names of men they've had sex with before they turned fourteen attached. That's right, you heard him, age fourteen.
The milk-plus starts to kick in for our boys. How do we know? Well, when you start to hear voices moving from one part of the bar to another, "flying up to the ceiling and then swooping down again and whizzing from wall to wall," and when you "feel the knives in the old moloko starting to prick," you just know.
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