Brew Of Life Essay Research Paper Anthony

Brew Of Life Essay, Research Paper

Anthony Burgess, Selective Individualist

It is often said that life is full of choices and the choices you make is what

makes you yourself. Society, however, has since the dawn of time tried to control

the thoughts of individuals by forcing ideas upon them that destroys the person on

a mental and emotional level while crushing their physical well-being. With the

thoughts of a perfect world, people often forget that when you force a society to

conform to standards you also kill the society’s existence in the process, making it

more machine that human. It takes a strong and educated person to realize these

mistakes made by society and try to show others why it’s wrong to try force

conformity. Anthony Burgess’ belief that “a man who cannot choose ceases to be

a man” is exemplified in most of his works, but most notably in A Clockwork

Orange in which a so-called good society tries to change the psyche of a troubled

youth.

Born John Anthony Burgess Wilson, Anthony Burgess is a man of great

stature and respect. “A big man of sturby, ramshackle appearance, with a blunt

disarming manner and awesome energy (Clemons 56).” He loved life and

expressed it in his works of literature. Born in Manchester, England during the

influenza epidemic, during which his mother and sister passed away soon after his

birth, Burgess’ was ignored by his father who he received little to no attention

from. This, however, allowed him to create the thoughts and ideas which he

preaches. He was a man of little religious belief because he questioned why man

was put on earth. Burgess believed that people should live life in the present not

for the future, which labeled him an anarchist by the church of England. He didn’t

mind the accusations though, he was content with the life he led. (Clemons 56)

Anthony Burgess was a frail child, secluded from the world. At the

age of four he used his time to try and discover a talent in the arts. He highly

enjoyed drawing, writing poems, and essays but was always searching for the one

medium that he would succeed at. Burgess found music to be a art form he

enjoyed the most and studied it up to college were he was forced to study English

because he had a lack of qualifications. Although a little unappreciative at first

Burgess soon found a new love in English and obtained a BA degree with honors

in 1940 from Manchester University. He Jumped from job to job teaching

English soon after, always trying to find happiness. Burgess worked in many

diverse areas ranging from a English master in a grammar school near oxford to

an education officer for the colonial office an Malaysia. Burgess used his free-

time to write, but didn’t expect too much to come from it because of a doubt in his

talent. It was in Malaysia where he had his first novels, The Malaysian Trilogy

published. Burgess soon returned home, however, in 1959 he was diagnosed with

a brain tumor and was told he only had a year to live. At this point Burgess began

to write novels to support his widow-to-be wife. This was how the world came to

know him, and the reason Burgess started to write as a profession. (Clemons 57)

Anthony Burgess acquired a fine taste for writing and was relieved to here

the news of a medical error in his diagnosis. Burgess saw a sign, a blessing telling

him to live life and do what you want to do not what your told to do. This was the

whole basis of his belief that people should be themselves and it was seen in his

writings from that point on. “Instead of writing about the same topics as other

writers of the same time period, [Burgess] concentrated on the themes of the

danger of loss of individuality (Tilton 55).” However, Burgess was criticized

about his ideas because they didn’t follow the churches ideas about thinking in

terms of your afterlife. This got him in some muddy water, but only fueled the

fire within. (Tilton 56)

Challenging the church was a hard task. It seemed like it was Burgess

against the world in his effort to prove his point, but it didn’t phase him just

helped him get ideas for writing more controversial material. In the late 1950’s

Burgess started to work on the one piece of literature that was to share his belief

of individuality with the world. A Clockwork Orange was written because of the

criticizing of the church and was to be the pinnacle of Burgess’ career in as a

writer. Burgess once said, “My god, I had to write A Clockwork Orange in a state

of near drunkenness, in order to deal with material that upset me so much.”

Burgess’ literal value was often doubted because of his well known alcoholism,

and critics question the integrity before it’s release. Upon it’s release, however, all

the skepticism stop because the critics were shocked at Burgess’ war against the

church.

A Clockwork Orange was perhaps one of the most controversial no

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