Part 3

• Engels
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

Goals for today 

Part 2 consideration of the Ludovico technique 

Some comprehension questions 

Reading about conditioning in education 

Debating the for and against of this technique 

Paper 2 study guide preparation 

What's it going to be then, eh? 

Part 2 

In Part 2, the Minister of Interior visits prison and Alex is chosen to undergo a Pavlovian method of conditioning called the ‘Ludovico Technique’. ​

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It’s essentially a form of brainwashing, which ​

will make Alex “good”, as he will be incapable of choosing to do any evil once the treatment is complete. 

Part two chapters 1 & 2  

1. How does Part 2 start? Why do you think Burgess chooses to mimic Part 1 in this way?​
2. What arrangement does Alex have with the chaplain in the prison church?​
3. What does the Chaplain mean when he says, "'Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man"?​
4. Why does Alex beat up the new prisoner? What does he dream of afterwards? 
   

Part two chapters 3,4 & 5  

1. Why does the Chaplain disagree with the treatment Alex will undergo?​
   
2. ​Briefly describe the Ludovico treatment and Alex’s reaction to it. ​
3. ​Briefly describe Alex’s dream the first night after his treatment.​

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Part two chapters 3,4 & 5  

"'You are passing now, to a region where you will be beyond the reach of the power of prayer. A terrible, terrible thing to consider. And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprived of the ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good. So I shall like to think. So God help us all, 6655321, I shall like to think' ​. And then he began to cry." 

Part two chapters 6 & 7   

1. Why can’t Alex hurt the doctor when he tries to escape his room?
   
2. Who watch Alex’s last session in the cinema?
   
3. What is Alex’s reaction when he is flicked on the nose and taunted?
   
4. How does Part 2 end? How does Part 3 begin?
   

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Read the text 

Note - this text was written in 1974. 

Note - how is the description of society similar or different to how society is in 2025? 

Note down arguments for or against behaviour modification.

You will need these for the next part of the lesson ​

Debate 

​Resources for debate preparation:

Quotes for and against behaviour modification (conditioning) 

Academic paper: "Behaviour Modification: A Classroom Clockwork Orange?" 

Debate 

" The media replace our interpersonal relationships and thus fortify disengagement." 

"We are unaware that we are assuming a passive role influenced by our mass communications"

"there is within our society a definite trend toward a state of affectlessness 

"This apathy provokes violence and violence promotes apathy" 

"living in a mechanised, detached, depersonalized, and alienated period." (in 1974) 

Debate 

1. ​You will make one group of 10 and one of 9  
   
2. Two or one of your group are the jury 
   
3. Two opposing teams of 4 students each
   
4. One team will argue: Behaviour modification (the Ludovico technique) has a useful role to play in reducing criminality. 
   
5. One team will argue: Behaviour modification (the Ludovico technique) has no role to play in reducing criminality. 
6. 7 minutes to prepare your arguments 
7. 3 minutes to present your arguments 
8. 3 minutes for rebuttal 
9. Jury reviews for two minutes 
10. Jury gives their judgment 

Part two chapters 6 & 7   

The nadsat Language created by Burgess has an aesthetic purpose – a linguistic fog, preventing the reader from being uncomfortably close to realistic descriptions of violence.

Discuss this claim in your group. Is this one of the effects of these stylistic and linguistic choices? Are there other effects for you, as a reader that the author could have intended? 

Part two chapters 6 & 7   

How does Alex’s use of language enable him to be a personable character that helps endear him to the reader? 

Discuss this question. Consider his elevated, old- fashioned manner and the epithet he uses for himself. Do we become complicit through the use of this unreliable narrator?