I thought one of the most striking scenes occurred on pages 13-14, where Alex and his droogs encounter and abuse a "pyahnitsa" (drunkard). The man is very drunk, and he sings a song with the ambiguous lyrics "And I will go back to my darling, my darling, / When you, my darling, are gone," and then in the next breath states "Go on, do me in, you bastard cowards, I don't want to live anyway, not in a stinking world like this one" (13).
The stark contrast between these lines is obvious. In his song, the man uses the word "darling," which is both affectionate and classy, something an old movie star would say. The song's structure is grammatically sound, with correct comma usage for the direct address of "my darling," and the more formal "I will" compared to a contracted "I'll" or "I'mma." In his own speech, the man is less coherent and much less proper in his use of language. He contracts "don't" instead of using "do not" and uses the informal euphemism "do me in" as well as the less than polite "bastard cowards" and "stinking." Burgess even uses multiple comma splices to express the rhythm and perhaps the uneducated or desperate nature of the man and his statement.
Yet the juxtaposition of these two speeches also reveals inherent similarities. Both have a sense of apathy in their tone, with the song revealing it through an apparent non-reaction to the addressee being "gone," not if but "when." The man's speech is even more clearly apathetic, with a statement that he wouldn't mind being killed by the droogs. This apathy, doubled in impact, is fascinating to consider, especially in the context that much later in the book Alex hears the same song lines repeated again.
The first part of the song about the darling reminds me of the song Clementine, which is fairly somber and depressing. The song adds a desperate tone to the novel, and it foreshadows something sinister. There is a lot of emphasis on this drunkard, especially since Alex probably encounters people like him a lot. The song is about loss, but a sort of inescapable and inevitable loss. The drunkard faces the loss of his darling, and Alex faces the loss of what he loves, both violence and music. The music aspect of Alex’s loss is especially connected to this song because the music is one of the only innocent parts of his life, to a point, and the loss of it crushed Alex. “Darling” is an innocent sounding word, and could very well describe Alex’s loss of music. One of the first things that Alex did when he left his parents’ was go try to listen to music; he went straight to his “darling” when his “darling” was gone. His radio and his music and his needles and all his personal items (“darlings”) were gone from his home, but he tried to go back to them. Then, he tried to kill himself because he did not want to live “in a stinking world” like that, and he almost is killed by some droogs. The drunkard is almost a future Alex.
ReplyDeleteSam - You're right about the sense of apathy in both lines, and your discussion of the grammar is interesting. Your mention of music also reminds me of Alex's fixation with classical music, although it seems to remove, even temporarily, some of his own apathy, which may be why he loves it so much.
ReplyDeleteStephanie - Your suggestion that Alex was destined to become like this man is also fascinating, because he does accept the futility of the world in which he lives. Perhaps music is the one thing that tethers him to meaning.