A Clockwork Orange (1971) - 8 questions

Question: I have a few questions: What was the ultimate fate of Mr. Alexander, the writer? The Minister of Interior mentioned something about incarceration? If so, why was he incarcerated? Was it because of what he did to Alex, or because he was a threat? Also, the Minister mentioned something about him writing subversive literature? What kind of literature? Finally, what exactly did Alex and his droogs do to confine Mr. Alexander to a wheelchair and how exactly did his wife die? Was it pneumonia or circumstances related to her rape?

Answer: Since this is a futuristic police state, it's likely that Mr. Alexander was dealt with the way dissenters are often dealt with in such situations (Execution or lifelong imprisonment.). In the book, he wrote literature protesting the police state. (The phrase "A Clockwork Orange" comes from a pamphlet he wrote.) Alex and his droogs kicked and beat him while they raped his wife. A while later, the doctors told him she'd died of pneumonia, but he thinks the trauma made her give up the will to live.

Question: How exactly were the doctors able to reverse the effects and undo the Ludovico technique that Alex was subjected to?

Answer: We're never given details. Possibly electroshock therapy or somehow purging his system of the Ludovico formula.

Question: Why did Alex's droogs turn against him? Did they plan to turn against him all along or was it a spur of the moment thing when the police came?

Answer: The droogs didn't like how Alex was leading them, so he attacked them. It's never explained whether the plan was to set him up all along, but given that Georgie was ready with the bottle to smash him over the head, it seems like an opportunity to be rid of him came up and they took it.

Question: How exactly does the Ludovico technique work?

Answer: It's an extreme form of aversion therapy. The pleasant stimulus (violence in this case) is associated with an unpleasant stimulus (a drug that makes him feel sick). Eventually, it is hard to think of the pleasant stimulus without thinking of the unpleasant stimulus thus making the whole experience unpleasant.

Question: What happened during Alex's dream that people were playing around in his head? What does this actually mean?

Answer: It means they were altering his brain to somehow undo the Ludovico Treatment.

Question: I don't understand why Alex waits until Mrs. Alexander has unchained the opened front door and fully opened it, before he and his droogs break in. I'm sure the four of them could easily have broken the chain off with a bit of force. Is it simply part of Alex's nature to be invited in, before he starts his attack?

Answer: It's part of the "fun element" of the crime to get the victim to open the door themselves.

Question: Does anyone know what happened to Pete ? Dim and Georgie become cops, but they never say anything about Pete.

Answer: In the original version of the book, after Alex has his treatment (or, more acurately, his reversal of the treatment) Alex visits Pete, who is living in the suburbs with a wife and kids. Alex then decides that this is what he wants in life, so he gets married and settles. This ending is only in the British copy.

Question: Having not read the book, can someone please explain to me what the phrase A Clockwork Orange actually means?

Answer: It's explained in the preface to the book as a strange cockney expression, "Queer as a clockwork orange". Clockwork oranges don't exist, obviously, so it basically means something is exceptionally odd.