In Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange, the narrator and central character is Alex.
Alex is a teenage gang leader who describes his violent actions in a distinctive first-person voice. He and his friends use Nadsat, a slang vocabulary influenced chiefly by Russian, which gives the narration much of its unusual sound. Alex's name is generally presented without a conventional surname.
After being arrested, Alex undergoes the Ludovico Technique, an aversion treatment intended to make him physically unable to choose violent behavior. The novel therefore examines free will, state coercion, and whether enforced goodness is morally meaningful.
The character is often associated with Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film adaptation, in which Malcolm McDowell played him. The film omits the novel's final chapter in some editions' source tradition, so readers should distinguish the book's ending and character development from the film's.