A Clockwork Orange as a Modernist Work Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, published in 1962, technically falls after the period considered "modernism", but it embodies all the characteristics which were characteristic of this literary era. Burgess's novel is a futuristic look at a totalitarian government. A Clockwork Orange abandons normal "language" (which modernists argued couldn't always convey meaning anyway) and is written in "Nadsat" (meaning adolescent). It's a slang spoken by teenagers of the time. Burgess uses approximately two hundred and fifty “nadsat” words (most of which have Russian roots) to tell his story. This gives the reader a sense of intimacy with Alex and his "droogs" (friends) due to the fact that the adults in the novel cannot understand what they are saying. There is also a disruption of the linear flow of the narrative outside of this private language; Alex (“Our Humble Narrator”) tells the story in a recollection-like sequence, but often interjects with thoughts or questions posed directly to the reader. Aside from the strange language found within the pages of this novel, one of the most obvious modernist characteristics is Burgess's ability to shock. There are many different scenes that are quite disturbing and violent. Alex's propensity to rape young girls (ten years old), and his absolute joy at the sight of blood and pain. '...while I tore off this and that and the other...and a very good horror show [good] groodies [breasts], they then showed off their rose-colored glasses [eyes], oh my brothers, during that I took off my clothes [undressed] and I got ready for the big jump. As I plunged, I could [hear] the cries of agony” (Burgess 23). This ties into the fact that as readers we tend to follow the actions of Alex and his droogs and it's easy to get caught up in all the violent action and lose sight of the true meaning of the novel by Burgess. Burgess writes this novel from and to the "ID". Alex and his droogs embody every animal or primitive instinct and the story that unfolds before the reader has little respect for realism. We are faced with a world in which teenagers rule the nights, keeping all the real people at home. A world where there are milk bars (moloko kordova) in which fifteen year olds can be served milk laden with drugs.