How would I make an argument of free will vs. the conformity of roles presented in an idyllic society based on A Clockwork Orange and 1984? I need...

Both Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and George Orwell’s 1984 address dystopian societies in which individual thought is less valuable than conformity to the status quo. While these novels address these issues in disparate ways, both authors provide valuable insight into the struggle between individuality and conforming to dystopian values.

First, Orwell’s 1984 has proven hugely influential through its depiction of a totalitarian state’s influence on individual free will. The government conscripts its citizens to...

Both Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and George Orwell’s 1984 address dystopian societies in which individual thought is less valuable than conformity to the status quo. While these novels address these issues in disparate ways, both authors provide valuable insight into the struggle between individuality and conforming to dystopian values.

First, Orwell’s 1984 has proven hugely influential through its depiction of a totalitarian state’s influence on individual free will. The government conscripts its citizens to conform to and follow the values they have set forth. Indeed, at the end of the novel, after Winston Smith has been captured and tortured, Winston Smith prescribes to the norms and values of the government, and foregoes his ability to think independently.  

Similarly, Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange explores how society can influence and stifle individual will. Young, violent Alex is “reformed” from his depraved thoughts through questionable methods. Here, Burgess challenges a society which enforces acceptable behavior, and champions individual thought, even if it is what many would consider evil. Alex is not good by choice; certainly, he is still the same bloodthirsty teenager for much of the novel. So is it valuable that he has been essentially brainwashed into not committing acts of violence? The prison chaplain questions this distinction:

“They have turned you into something other than a human being. You have no power of choice any longer. You are committed to socially acceptable acts, a little machine capable only of good” (174).

Both Burgess and Orwell potently use images of individuals coerced into following the status quo of a given dystopian society in order to illustrate their point: individual will is more valuable than groupthink, even if societal pressure is difficult—or impossible—to resist.