Arancia meccanica: significato e trama del libro

ARANCIA MECCANICA: SIGNIFICATO E TRAMA DEL LIBRO IN INGLESE

Chapter I.

The twentieth century was a century marked by the expansion of industries and by the World Wars, cause of men’s loss in reliability for his securities and capabilities. This may be reflected in men’s works, such as literature and movies. The novel A Clockwork Orange (Arancia meccanica), written by Anthony Burgess, and the homonymous movie explore the concept of growth and maturity together with the uncertainties for the (near) future from the point of view of a British and, probably, of a more optimistic American society. In this in depth study I will try to put in evidence the differences between the points of view of these two similar societies by comparing and contrasting the “same” story and the stylistic devices used both in the book and the movie.

Barry Lydon: relazione film di Kubrick

ARANCIA MECCANICA TRAMA

My research begins with the opening of the dictionary to look for and comprehend the meaning of the word “clockwork” used in the title: “to happen according to plan; to happen without difficulties” .

This, by knowing the story fairly well from having already seen the movie, helped me to realize the decision of using this word as one of the main words (if not the main one) for the title: to show the possibility of this near future becoming true almost as if it were inevitable. This book, by using this term expresses the pessimism of the mid 1900’s. Another possible reason for this title is also given by the book itself (in the introduction) which states the adaptation “from a piece of slang: as queer as a clockwork orange” , meaning very queer indeed.