"What‘s it going to be then, eh?"
             That is how novelist Anthony Burgess lets his "humble narrator" Alex, Alexander the Large, begin the telling of his brutal odyssey from a criminality loving youngster to a mind- conditioned "clockwork orange"- toy made by the state.
             Alex, the 15-year-old leader of a gang of "droogs" lives a life based on brutality, rape and even murder before he gets "cured" of his evil behaviour by the Ludovico Technique, "a scientific method for taking moral choice away from troublesome criminals" . Due to this method Alex is changed into an adapted object fitting into the rules of the state.
             Appearing in 1962, A Clockwork Orange was published in two different versions: the American one that contained twenty chapters and lets the protagonist regain his "evil attitude" in the end and the version that appeared anywhere else and contained one chapter more. There Burgess "young thuggish protagonist grows up. He grows bored with violence and recognises that human energy is better expended on creation than destruction."
             About ten years after the release of the book director Stanley Kubrick turned the novel into a remarkable film, which is based on the American edition of the book and strongly focuses on the moral aspects of Burgess‘ work.
             A Clockwork Orange – What is the meaning of the title of book and film? What is the general intention of this story and how did Burgess and Kubrick work out certain elements? What are the important points for writer and director? What do they think about the "Almighty State" and its deeds? How does the reader/ viewer react to the story- especially to the main protagonist Alex?
             These questions are going to be answered in this paper. I am going to start by discussing the novel‘s title and I will go on by pointing out the important elements of the story and...