A Clockwork Orange: Violence and Corruption Alex, the fifteen year old narrator of Anthony Burgess's novel, A Clockwork Orange, lives in a society where violence reigns. This novel has a very direct nature, and is often blunt to the point of offense, but this makes it more powerful and helps to further its point. This point is that everyone is out for themselves, whether they be the police, government or citizens of this society. In this book, the police can be just as violent as Alex and his droogs, or gang. In fact, by the end of the novel, his droogs have themselves become the police.