The "bildungsroman" framework for a novel exists in many timeless classics; however, the framework of Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange does not follow this schematic exactly. A glaring difference between a conventional "bildungsroman" novel and A Clockwork Orange exists in the idea that the protagonist must engage is some personal moral or spiritual conflict. In A Clockwork Orange, Alex can not experience any sort of spiritual or moral dilemma as "he ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice" (126). Aside from Alex's failure to face moral conflict, A Clockwork Orange follows the "bildungsroman" framework.
             In a "bildungsroman" novel the protagonist must examine their surrounding society or culture. The two cultures present in the novel are that of the bourgeois and the nadsats. Alex examines as well as explains society and the differences between each culture for the reader:
             "The day was different from the night. The night belonged to me and my droogs and all the rest of the nadsats, and the starry bourgeois lurked indoors drinking in the gloopy worldcasts, but the day was for the starry ones, and there always seemed to be more rozzes or millicents about during the day, too." (45)
             Alex's ability to provide the reader with a concise explanation of the workings of society as well as observations (more millicents about during the day) proves that he watches and absorbs his surroundings. To further support the idea that Alex examines society, he reveals certain "vesches" that bother him such as witnessing a "moodge all filthy and rolling and burping and drunk." (20) Alex would neither be able to explain nor denounce any aspect of society if he did not scrutinize it.
             Aforementioned, Burgess strays from conventional "bildungsroman" structure in making moral conflict impossible for Alex. Doctor Brodsky...