3 books and 1 movie whose meaning I distinctly remember

I am not claiming that my interpretations are right, but I do have it — an interpretation, a takeaway. It’s not always the case. Sometimes you enjoy a book, but there is no takeaway. It’s not good or bad, so I’m not making judgments.

Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

I read the book in my teen years when I was studying at a boarding school in England and enjoyed its authenticity greatly — all those occasional words in Russian. I guess I wasn’t supposed to understand them, but I did. Years later, I enjoyed Kubrick’s genius movie. But it’s not the artistic elements I remember about the book or the film. At the end there is an attempt to cure the violence in the main character by exposing him to violence. And it fails. I forget the exact details, but Alex resumes his destructive and violent ways. My interpretation is that you can not cure violence with violence.

Brother Karamazov by Dostoevsky

A complex book and my all-time favorite though I often mention how these days, I feel suffocating alienation when I think of Russian classics. So there is a lot of darkness in the book. We are exposed to death, insanity, murder, and all kinds of vices across the novel’s plot lines and characters. But the end of the book is full of light and optimism. In fact, it’s the most optimistic…