The Fascinating Teen Image in A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is a film that paints a hellish nightmare of a picture that most who see wish they could forget and write it off as the work of a sick man. Unfortunately, to do that is to dismiss reality. The film’s anti-hero (more anti than hero) Alex epitomizes the most disturbing and macabre elements of the confusion and transformation from teenage adolescence to adulthood. Fused with mental illness, this creates something truly terrifying. Amidst his self-proclaimed “ultra-violent” crime sprees, we still see Alex wrestling with feelings that many of us teenage students may also deal with from time to time. When asked if he is still suicidal, Alex says “Well, put it this way, I feel very low in myself. I can’t see much in the future, and I feel any second something terrible is going to happen to me.” We can all relate with not being able to see much into the future, as teenagers. But sad as it may be, a frightening percentage of teens have to cope with those feelings of low self-esteem and suicide, sometimes with not a single person to share them with, and Kubrick captures the essence those feelings. The sadness from being neglected and dismissed as a freak manifests itself in Alex’s acts of ultraviolence. The reality and accuracy of the film is disheartening, but it hits you on the head and the stomach and shows you what you would never see otherwise.