What Is The Theme Of Underage Drinking In Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange

The future of society looks grim as our teens are bombarded by pressure to speak with swear words, drink under the legal age, and perform acts of violence. Our teens must be saved from the terrible influences. Saving the children’s innocence can only be done by sheltering adolescents from the evil spreading across the globe. The media and books with controversial topics promote ideas of pursuing unacceptable actions to impressionable children. If teens are hidden from the dreadful influences from around the world they will be safe and too oblivious to commit the actions themselves. Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange holds an array of controversial topics ranging from swearing to alcohol abuse to graphic violence. Children must be shielded
In the novel, Burgess illustrates, the characters spend a quite a bit of time in a bar drinking milk laced with alcohol in the novel when he wrote: “Or you could [drink] the milk with knives in it, as we used to say, and this would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty [gang violence], and that was what we were [drinking] this evening I’m starting off the story with” (Burgess). The milk is laced with alcohol, and the bar is passing it off as regular milk, so it can be served to minors. By drinking milk, the characters depicted as innocent, when really they are sinful and harming themselves with alcohol. Exposing teens to underage drinking without repercussions shines a positive light on a negative activity. Alcohol is advertised everywhere, there is no escape. The teens see alcohol being advertised very often and that increases their subjection to underage drinking, the statement is proved when the author states: “Alcohol is among the most heavily advertised products worldwide, resulting in increasing exposure to underage youth” (Fielder, Donovan, Ouschan). Teens are exposed to alcohol or advertisements for alcohol very often, and exposure to situations where there are no consequences to alcohol consumption encourages teens to act similarly. Sheltering teens from successful underage drinking attempts will discourage the urge to repeat the dangerous actions. Alcohol advertising has
The novel teaches teens to be individuals and make their own choices. According to Bruce Olsen, "What Burgess intended to emphasize, as he points out in his introduction, is the necessity of free will and moral choice in the human makeup" (Olsen). While the novel teaches individuals to be unique and make their own choices, the characters in A Clockwork Orange make the wrong choices. In turn, teaching teens that being unique means making faulty decisions. The free will of teenagers must be guided by society and specific authoritative figures. The breakdown in society that allows teens to run the streets and commit acts of violence shows that the privilege of free will and the ability to make their own choices should be controlled the indicated is supported when the author states: "A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian novel, one that shows a seriously malfunctioning society" (Olsen). Since society today functions much better than the one in the novel, we must handle swearing, underage drinking, and violence differently. The hidden, beneficial teachings are actually preaching inappropriate lessons. Due to how well our society is functioning today, teenagers are making better decisions, and should not be influenced by the unsuitable topics in Burgess’s novel. Civilization must move forward, not back, so the ideas of making bad decisions should be