Clockwork Orange

The main spotlight of Clockwork Orange to demonstrate in a term paper is the idiotic forms of punishment that the governments of the world have dreamed up to nullify crime. Reality has actually shown what happens when former gang members become police officers. Los Angeles has a problem of internal corruption and continued membership in the gang that the individuals in question were supposed to have left. It's different in the movie, but it is still obviously a mistake to give former violent criminals street authority. The ideas of punishment in place in Alex's world are first culturally different because he lives in England, where the death penalty has been rightfully abolished for some time, and second because it is a relatively futuristic fantasy world. Unfortunately, the reality of crime and punishment in America is not really that incongruous. The police are notoriously corrupt, the methods of "rehabilitation" for criminals actually do create a sort of perpetual prison culture that oftentimes leads to repeat offenders who become conditioned to exist only in prison, wither or not they are still in prison. The difference would be that the brainwashing is not actually a planned consequence of the sentence. The brainwashing in the film is a corruption of free will, and the moral questions of the validity of the current and possible punishments of violent crime come in to play.

Vincent Canby was accurate in his statement that this movie was "essentially Christian". Christian beliefs are centered on the fact that God bestowed upon the human race free will, the will to decide our actions and also the will to impose punishment for those actions deemed detrimental by the majority. The priest in the prison made the best statement for free will as an inalienable right during Alex's demonstration of his new, rehabilitated state. He is absolutely correct in his assertion that punishment is based on the prisoners' compulsion to be reintroduced into society as a productive member and not simply the theft of the actual physical or emotional means to repeat the previous crimes. The truly Christian beliefs in law and punishment accurate to the scripture should be accurate to the views expressed by the priest, for is a prisoner truly rehabilitated if he is only subjected to the imposed will of society, not his own desire to suppress the negative expressions of his own will. The morality inherent in this film is different than most morality plays, due to the fact that the morality in question is not Alex's personal morality. Kubrick's vision is critical of the morality of the society that accepts brainwashing as a treatment for violent criminals. Also, the morality of Alex's parents and guidance councilor, who all turn on him when he is incarcerated only seem to show up when he becomes exonerated. Our professional writers will conclude in a custom essay that the entire society around Alex has worked to form him into the monster he is, but they are not prepared for the consequences. They can find no reasonable solution for the conundrum presented by his actions, so brainwashing is the only way out in the eyes of the government.