Historical Context

1960s

In 1961, the year after Burgess had written his first draft of A Clockwork Orange, he and his wife took a trip to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in what was then the Soviet Union. During that trip, Burgess was appalled and intrigued by the roaming gangs of hoodlums he saw, called stilyaqi. Burgess noted how the police, preoccupied with ideological crimes against the state, had a difficult time controlling these unruly youths. He also noted the similarities of the Russian and British youth subcultures and was inspired to fashion a hooligan character who was a composite of the ways in which youth spoke, acted, and dressed in Russia and England.

Hence, Alex and his droogs — "droog" derived from the Russian word "drugi," which means "friends in violence." The stilyaqi, or style-boys, sprung up in Russia during the 1940s and were roughly contemporaneous with American beats. The stilyaqi listened to jazz and later to American rock and roll. The Soviet government considered them troublesome juveniles.

The London youth subculture included groups known as teddyboys, mods, and rockers. Teddyboys emerged in the 1950s, as England was economically recovering from World War II and at the beginning of a consumer boom. Like many youth subcultures, they dressed to shock the status quo, wearing Edwardian-style drape jackets, suede Gibson shoes with thick crepe soles, narrow trousers, and loud ties. Like the greasers in movies such as American Graffitti, the teddyboys listened to rock and roll, fought rival gangs (often with razors and knives), and engaged in random vandalism. With the British popmusic boom of the 1960s, many teddyboys became rockers, wearing leather jackets, hanging out in working-class pubs, and riding motorcycles.

The mods, short for modernists, also emerged during the late 1950s in England. A more elitist group than the teddyboys, they wore their hair short; rode scooters; donned army anoraks; danced to groups such as the Creation, the Jam, and the Small Faces; and took amphetamines. The mods were sometimes referred to as "rude boys," and evolved into the "punks" and "skinheads" of the 1970s and later. For Burgess, however, being a mod, a stilyaqi, or a teddyboy, did not mean one practiced individual freedom. The trendy consumerism in which these group members engaged signaled a mindlessly slavish conformity.

Burgess also hated the control the state had over the individual, believing this control curtailed individual freedom. This state control was nowhere more evident than in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, where Burgess saw firsthand the extent to which the communist government regulated the individual's life. Burgess especially detested the way in which communism shifted moral responsibility from the individual to the state. Though Britain was and is a democratic government, by the 1950s the Labour Party had nationalized many industries including coal (1946), electricity (1947), and the railways (1948). Also, in 1946, the National Health Service was founded to take care of British citizens' medical needs. This welfare state was odious to Burgess, who believed that it put the needs of society over the freedom of the individual.

Compare & Contrast

• 1960s: Following years of heated protests and demonstrations, the United States passes the Civil Rights Act. The Act enforces the constitutional right to vote, guarantees relief against discrimination in public accommodations, and authorizes the Attorney General to initiate suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education.
  Today: Some states have enacted hate crime legislation, which penalizes criminals for committing crimes based on a person's race, sexuality, religion, gender, ancestry, or national origin.
• 1960s: The space race between the Soviet Union and the United States gathers momentum, as the Soviets send the first man into space to circle the earth, and the Americans land a man on the moon.
  Today: The space race of the 1960s has given way to international cooperation to explore the heavens. Led by the United States, the International Space Station draws upon the scientific and technological resources of sixteen nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, eleven nations of the European Space Agency, and Brazil. Launch of the space station is set for 2004.
• 1960s: The "Cold War" between the United States and the Soviet Union causes each country to be deeply suspicious of the other.
  Today: After the Soviet Union's dissolution, relations between Russia and the United States become warmer and more productive.
• 1960s: The Beatles and the Rolling Stones gain international popularity and help shape the desires and tastes of youth culture.
  Today: The influence of rock and roll on contemporary youth is still strong, but other kinds of music such as techno, heavy metal, and world pop also exert strong influence.