What effect does the language used in 'A Clockwork Orange' have on the reader

One of the first things that strikes a person as they are reading Anthony Burgess' novella, A Clockwork Orange, is the argot which the main character and narrator, Alex, and his friends in violence, or droogs as they are called, speak. This essay will, as the title suggests, explore the effect that this argot, which is called nadsat, has on the reader.

The language, nadsat, is explained by Blake Morrison in his introduction to the book as, 'essentially Anglo-American ... but many of the words are Slavic in origin.'. Indeed, the word 'nadsat' actually comes from the Russian suffix for 'teen'. Burgess also explains the roots of the nadsat in the book though Dr Brodsky, in part two, chapter six, with the words;
' "Odd bits of rhyming slang." said Dr Brodsky, ... "A bit of gipsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav. Propaganda. Subliminal Penetration." '

Another interesting feature of the book, related to the language, is the meaning of Alex's name, which comes from a-lex, which means without, or outside the law. This meaning is a fair reflection of the character of Alex in the first two parts of the book.

The person reading the book for the first time will invariably have problems following the action of the book because of the language. This fact distances us from what is happening, which helps to produce a number of effects on the reader.

One of these effects is the discomfort that we, as readers, feel at not being able to understand what is said. The feeling is similar to someone in a foreign country not being able to understand the native language, and therefore not knowing whether what is being said is friendly, hostile, threatening or anything.

The narration of the book is in the first person narrative, and the way in which Alex addresses us, quite often with the words 'O my brothers.' makes the story being told more personal, as it seems to be just us that Alex is talking to, and we are in receipt of an amazing story which is only being told to a chosen few. This use of language is incongruous to the use of the nadsat because, although Alex is making us feel part of a select group with the informal wording of the narrative, we are also left feeling out in the cold because of the nadsat which I, even after reading the book a number of times, still do not fully understand. This is another interesting of the book, the more times a person reads it, the meanings of more words of nadsat become known.

Another effect of the distancing, or alienation as it could be termed, is that the violence in the book is partially veiled, making it seem less shocking. As Burgess himself explained;
'to tolchock a chelloveck in the kishkas does not sound as bad as booting a man in the guts.'
This covering up of the violence using artificial language works because all of the time, we have to be thinking about what words such as yarbles (testicles), britva (razor) and oozy (chain) mean, and so there is a delay in our minds in registering what is actually happening. One of the reasons that Burgess did not like Stanley Kubrick's film version (released in 1972) was because the visual interpretation took away some of the mystique of the book due to the loss of the 'smokescreen' of the language.

Burgess' use of the nadsat can be somewhat incongruous. The section in part one, chapter two, that reads;
'So he did the strong-man on the devotchka, who was still creech creech creeching away in very horrorshow four-in-a-bar, locking her rookers from the back, while I ripped away at this and that and the other, the others were going haw haw haw still, and real horrorshow groodies they were that then exhibited their pink glazzies, O my brothers, while I untrussed and got ready for the plunge.'
If taken purely for the language, ignoring the meaning behind the nadsat words, sounds fairly humorous. But this humour becomes sickening, and even repulsive, when you realise that what Alex is describing is what he and his droogs did before gang raping the devotchka (woman).

The use of the nadsat is slightly ironic because of the trouble it causes for us, as readers. If we want to understand fully what is being said, and what is happening, the only way is to use a Russian dictionary (unless you have the American edition, which contains a glossary, does not contain the final chapter, and which Burgess was none to pleased about) which in a way is a form of brainwashing, and this is needed so that we can understand the action in a novella which takes brainwashing, and the loss of choice and free-will, as it's subject.

In one way, however, Burgess' use of the nadsat provides a useful reference point for us in figuring out who among the characters is a 'teen' and who is not. As Alex explains to F. Alexander in part three, chapter five;
' "Oh, that," I said, "is what we call nadsat talk. All the teens use that, sir. " '
Whereas those people who are not teens, such as Alex's parents, P. R. Deltoid, the prison chaplain and Joe (the lodger), speak normally and do not use the nadsat.

One section of the book which I find particularly effective is the part of the final chapter where Alex meets his old 'droog' Pete, and Pete's wife. The contrast between the speech of Alex, who is still using the nadsat, and Pete, who is now speaking normally, coupled with Georgina's (Pete's wife) amusement at Alex's speech creates a colourful word picture showing the contrast between the nadsat and the eloquence of Pete's speech.

Some people may find the nadsat hard to grasp at first. But I personally think that the words Burgess uses are effective because of the way that they work and fit in with the normal words. If you weren't concentrating fully on the book, then you may not realise which were the nadsat words as they flow so easily.

The peculiarity of the language in A Clockwork Orange is not only confined to Burgess' use of the nadsat. It also comes from the echoes of Shakespearean language, with words such as 'untrussed', 'thou' and 'thy', and the repeated use of the word 'like', such as in the phrase;
'Then there was like quiet and we were full of like hate.' (part one, chapter two)
This laconic use of the word 'like' did become popular in the late 1960's, but was uncommon in 1962, when the book was written.

One humorous feature of the book, to my mind, is the naming of the technique which is used to 'cure' Alex in the second part. The name Ludovico could be taken as a play on the first name of Beethoven, who in the book is Alex's favourite composer. There are also allusions to other British writers in the names of some of the streets, Kingsley Avenue and Priestly Place being just two of these. It is also thought that Burgess may have written himself into the story in the form of F. Alexander, the writer whose book is called A Clockwork Orange, though the style is very different to Burgess' novella, which it appears in.

Overall, the language of A Clockwork Orange creates a colourful word picture which has many effects on us, as readers, including making us feel like one of Alex's friends, and yet outside of the group who speak the nadsat. This, and other styles of language (i.e., the echoes of Shakespearean language) are used to create book which, though it has an important message, that it is better to be able to choose to be bad than to be pre-conditioned to be good, will be remembered for the peculiarities of the language.

What effect does the language used in A Clockwork Orange have on the reader