Moral and Ethical Implications in A Clockwork Orange

       History has been a constant struggle between the government and the people; when either gets too strong, the other uprises or cracks down. Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange is an example of an uprising people, but also a strict government. The extreme behavior of both the government and the citizens in this novel lead to extreme moral and ethical complications for both groups.
     A Clockwork Orange is set in a distopian society. Alex and his cronies run rampant throughout the streets at night, raping, murdering, and stealing. During the day, Alex skips school and lies in a heroin-induced state on his bed, listening to classical music. The boys are able to cause such damage because the police force, while feared, is scarce. This situation exemplifies an under-protective government; even the government worker who comes to Alex's flat in order to check on his school attendence is easily lied to and driven off. Where the  government is not present physically, neither is the law it enforces. An incredibly dangerous environment is thus created, where no citizen is safe from these rebellious teens.    
     The opposite actions from the government appear when Alex is arrested after being betrayed by his friends while robbing an old lady's house. He is given a choice: stay in prison, or become part of a revolutionary new experiement. He chooses the experiment, and goes through a process in which the government reprograms his mind to become sick at the thought of things that formerly brought him pleasure, including women, drugs, and violence. This drastic invasion of personal space demonstrated by the government is a direct departure from the previous situation, where only the physical presence of governmental authority would guarantee safety. The result of Alex's altered mind is the constant presence of authority, but now it is mental, not physical. While this does have a positive effect for the greater good, major questions are raised as far as the morality of the government's actions.
     The horrifying acts committed by both Alex and the government are both agreeably corrupt. However, just because both parties did horrible things, doesn't mean those things are cancelled out. The moral and ethical complications of Alex's actions are more overt. One can look his actions and say, "What he is doing is bad." It makes the reader want the police to show up and drag him away to jail, because in our society, we know that relatively fair justice would be served. However, the audience discovers that fair justice doesn't necessarily exist in Alex's world. This leads to the more covert complications of the government's actions. One questions the morality of the government's actions: they seem bad, but, the greater good is benefitting from them. This questioning that results is not a conformation of morality, but a conformation immorality. Just because the ethical complications that result from the government's actions are less concrete than the ones that result from Alex's  actions does not make either series of acts more or less moral.