Behavior and Social Issues in Burgess ’A Clockwork Orange

The popular and negative images of behavioral interventions held by the lay public is presented in Anthony Burgess ’A Clockwork Orange. It is suggested that because this image is so popular, the book and its author must be understood by behavior analysts if they are to adequately respond to claim made in the book and subsequent movie. Several of Burgess ’works are examined. It is suggested that Burgess wrote his books from the stand point of a Catholic with a belief in original sin and freewill. It portrays the rise of a new youth culture in revolt which produced violence and perversity. The youth started affecting the layers of the traditional British culture. The 1960s had found a culture completely opposite to its original tradition in terms. British culture was assuming a distorted shape both in values and norms. The socio-economic changes took place following the Second World War. The postwar generation had to peep into the collapsed world. The rising tension emerging out of a new threat from nuclear war is hanging overhead. This paper explores the extent to which the newly emerged culture affected the young generation and brought about chaos and disorder in British society.