The Uncivilizing Process of the West and Burgess’s Suggestion for Stopping this Process in a Clockwork Orange

Zerrin Eren

doi:10.22559/folklor.186

Research Article

The Uncivilizing Process of the West and Burgess’s Suggestion for Stopping this Process in a Clockwork Orange

Year 2018, Volume: 24 Issue: 96, 141 - 157, 06.11.2018

Zerrin Eren

https://doi.org/10.22559/folklor.186

Abstract

Western societies assume themselves more civilized than the other countries. However,

the Second World War and the atom bomb lead some scholars to question this

assumption. This paper argues that Burgess witnessing the increase in the teenage

violence is uneasy about the future of Western civilization. In A Clockwork Orange set

in England in the near future, Burgess presents that the increase in teenage violence may

result in state violence; some precautions taken by the state may violate human rights

which have been accepted as a new standard of civilization after the Second World

War, and some people thinking that the state does not punish the teenagers perpetrating

violence adequately may attempt to lynch them. This paper aims at discussing that the

teenage violence and the state violence depicted in the novel may be the indications

of an uncivilizing process for Burgess. Burgess displays as well that although the

teenagers using violence are, in fact, in need of affection and care, and they need the

guidance of their parents, the parents do not care for their teenage children since they

are busy with earning money. The paper concludes that in this novel Burgess warns his

readers that they should not expect the state to put an end to this uncivilizing process as the state may become totalitarian and suggests that parents may bring this process to an

end by caring about their children.

Keywords

Burgess, A Clockwork Orange, civilization, uncivilizing process

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