Individualism In A Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess

What is the correlation between the ability to choose and individualism? A moral choice is the option to follow a path that enforces a person’s values and beliefs during a dilemma. Whether it evokes a positive or negative result, it is still a proper response due to the display of nonconformity that is derived. This display of individuality has the ability to be immoral because the unfavorable behavior is still considered an individualistic choice as it is an opposition to the expected societal standards of goodness and order. In A Clockwork Orange, disobedience and crime is prevalent in the youth and used as a form of expression and eccentricity. In the novel, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, the main character of Alex is used to explore the notion that
The belief that going against society still implies individuality is rampant throughout the novel. F. Alexander proclaims, “A man who cannot choose ceases to be a man” (Burgess 175). It is a birthright to be able to determine what is suitable for the individual and when that option is taken away, the individual fails to exist. They become a product of a corrupt society that indoctrinates values and principles that civilization insists are acceptable and satisfactory. When instinct cannot be followed, humans desist to live. Maskivker explains, “...human beings must rely on the use of their rational will - rather than relying on instinct…” (Maskivker 136). If actions are not a result of personal choice, they are a result of instinct, meaning there is no individual decision involved. When someone is unable to decide through their own thinking, they become the brainwashed follower the government strives for. This concept is defined by Alex, “‘-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…’” (Burgess