DEPICTING THE CONCEPT OF THE MODERN VISION OF POST-MODERN URBAN LIFE AND EMBODYING IT THROUGH

A COMPARATIVE ANALYTICAL STUDY OF A CLOCKWORK ORANGE AND HIGH-RISE

Abstract

ANTHONY BURGESS’S AND J. G. BALLARD’S VISIONS OF POSTMODERN URBAN LIFE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF A CLOCKWORK ORANGE AND HIGH-RISE

The books examine Anthony Burgess’s and J. G. Ballard’s visions of postmodern urban life through their novels, A Clockwork Orange and High-Rise. These novels portray the societal conditions which lead to ultimate destruction through various disturbing occurrences. Anthony Burgess' and J. G. Ballard's postmodern works provide opposing perspectives of urban living that transcend banal concepts of everyday life. The novels A Clockwork Orange and High-Rise are examined critically in the study. The protagonists of the novels face different struggles and experience changes that will ultimately construct their destinies. The research finding shows how Burgess and Ballard build their characters, settings, or fictional worlds to portray their views of the postmodern era. The density of urban life and its alteration of scale has an impact on one another. The concentration topic in Ballard's discourse is depicted in The Concentration City, which presents a dystopia that "posits an infinitely stretched metropolis" that is "subject to economic laws, urban expansion, and the price of the machinery." Ballard's works extensively emphasise the concept of urban density. The protagonist of this narrative, Franz, a physics student, believes that a wall surrounds the city and that the world beyond that wall is free. This vision can help us understand the impact of dense population on the postmodern period.

Additionally, the research examines the role of violence in contemporary society and robust societal structures’ oppression of innocent persons. The paper also discusses the importance of social order and standards in enacting positive social change. Both of these works do an excellent job of reflecting contemporary society. The research article also investigates how both novels criticize urban society and portray a dystopia that leads to social doom.