1. What’s it going to be then, eh?
This question appears several times
in the book, at the beginnings of Parts 1, 2, and 3, as well as
at the beginning of the final chapter. Besides helping to underscore
the symmetry of the novel’s structure, this phrase reinforces some
of the central themes of the novel, including the inviolability
of individual moral choice and the necessity of commitment in life.
Alex first asks this question to himself and his friends, as they
plan ahead for a night of crime. Throughout Part One, Alex is confronted
with a choice between being good and being evil. At this point,
the question is an authentic one, as both options represent equally
valid alternatives. In Part Two, however, Alex is not in the position
to ask this question himself. Having convicted him of murder, the
State restricts his options and revokes his right to determine his
own behavior. The government is now the only entity that can authentically
ask the question. Choosing his path for him, the State selects Alex
to undergo conditioning to kill his capacity to consider socially
unacceptable courses of action.
Neutered of his free will, Alex loses the power to make
meaningful choices. The question as it appears in Part Three, then,
is an empty one, since Alex’s conditioning has restricted him to
a single option. Without the power of self-determination, Alex loses
his identity as a human being. Alex becomes a mechanized thing,
and therefore becomes vulnerable to being used in others’ schemes
for power. Faced with the prospect of being either a good thing
or a dead man, Alex chooses the latter and attempts suicide. Alex
is unsuccessful. However, the government subsequently chooses to eradicate
his conditioning, and Alex once again regains the capacity for evil.
Despite his returned propensity for evil, the novel claims that,
without the power to choose one’s own path of action, any human
behavior remains meaningless.
