Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange'

It has been many years since I first read Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange'. I was off at summer camp the summer before either 7th or eighth grade, and it did make some impression on me.

I just looked it up on Amazon and looked at the comments. One of them included the question "is being good truly good if it is not by choice?" to which I had to reply:

I first read Clockwork Orange back in 1965, when I was 12. It did make an impression.

This may be the core question of the book for the philosophical types who live in gentle territories.

However, the question for the rest of us is "What may I do to make sure this murdering little gang rapist doesn't gang rape MY wife/daughter/sister/friend/neighbor/utter stranger to death?"

In my book, the only proper answer: Damn near anything it takes. I don't care about Alex's upbringing, the unfairness of his society, the nihilistic influence of his friends, or the purity of his joy in kicking victims to death or raping them to death. I care no more about Alex's wants, needs, hopes, and fears than I do for Hitler's or Stalins. Why he is a sadistic, murderous monster matters not a whit to me: Explaining his perversion does not excuse his actions or make them acceptable. The only thing I care about is making sure he stops, and if brainwashing works, fine. If it doesn't, kill him.