In Anthony Burgess's shocking A Clockwork Orange, we are presented with a protagonist named Alex, who elects a course of violent conduct against the simplest and most vulnerable members of society. His victims included an elderly women, a middle-aged man, a shopkeeper, two young girls, and a married couple to name just a few. In a night of rampaging Alex beat, raped, robbed and killed his victims, committing the most heinous acts known to a civilized western society. The context within which these actions are performed however, is that of a free man, making free choices. It is the countervailing steps against the actions of the protagonist by society (the local police authorities) that the curtailment of personal freedom for the needs of society is presented.
             As a fifteen-year-old criminal, Alex and his "droogs" (friends) chose an anti-social path of behavior that not only to ruined their own lives, but destroyed the lives of those they came into contact with (i.e. F. Alexander). A typical night on the town consisted of a combination of beating "chellovecks" (men), the raping of a "devotchka" (woman), "ittying" (going) to the milk plus "vesto" (drug) bar and the robbery of a store in a part of town where the "millicents" (police) did not ordinarily patrol. Without any authority or feelings of guilt Alex's immunity to a sense of remorse or punishment was never ending. Alex and his "droogs" (friends) needed either a person or an institution of society to limit their actions. It was against this background of behavior that society, through it's police force, reacted. Yet, as inappropriate as the protagonist's behavior is presented in this novel, so to were the methods used by society in their "reclamation treatments."
             There is no question that Alex should not have been
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