er". The other characters in the book, like his parents, do not speak nadsat, nor do they fully understand what it is that Alex speaks at times.The novella is split among three books, each of seven chapters (an implicit allusion to Shakespeares seven ages of a man). The first details his crimes. He beats the elderly, fights other gangs, with a razor knife "britva", no less, rapes girls, drinks much moloko, and finally, assaults a woman, inflicting mortal wounds. He is betrayed by his droogs and is sent to prison.The second book chronicles his time spent in prison, and it overlaps into the third book, primarily focusing on his treatment. He is treated in a strange manner, in a method that alters his mind with a combination of drugs and horrifying visuals. He is changed to a point where the very thought of sex or violence (and even music) is enough to give him nausea. He reaches a stage where his humanity is in question, and Burgess is probing the fundamentals of moral choice and free will, essentially asking, "Is a person necessarily good if he is incapable of choosing evil?"The final portion of the book shows an Alex that is now a victim, unable to fight back against his many enemies from previous encounters (several years have passed). Everyone takes a swipe at him, and he is helpless to do anything. By the end, he learns, he has been given a new chance at life. The final chapter was originally cut in America and in the film, but it is really the most interesting of all. In it, after meeting the only droog to remain loyal to him, now wed, he realizes that he, too, would like a wife, and possibly a child; and that he had changed and wanted to leave the tolchocking ways behind. But he must wonder, will his child follow the same path of self destruction?My son, my son. When I had my son I would explain all that to him when he was starry enough to like understand. But then I knew he would not understand or would not want to understand at a...
