In both 1984 and A Clockwork Orange, free will and the abuse of power are two intrinsically linked themes that are intertwined throughout and that govern every what this happens in both novels. The different reactions of different characters is an area that both George Orwell and Anthony Burgess focus on with interesting parallels between the two main protagonists, Alex and Winston. Winston and Alex, although very different, react quite similarly to the events surrounding their circumstances. . Their control over free will and the use of power is evident from their actions. In 1984 the limit of free will associated with each character is clearly evident. A character is bound only by the state's decisions and has little or no influence on his or her actions. Although the characters are able to exercise what remains of their free will, it can be argued that this in itself is not completely free will, as they work around state control, this also makes it extremely visible that the state uses power to their disposition almost as a means to instill fear and ensure that the “outside” does what it is told. “Winston had his back to the television screen. It was safer, however, as he well knew, even the back can be revealing. Winston's decision to exercise what little free will he has demonstrates the supreme control the government has, but at the same time it also shows that the "minority classes" still have a slight amount of control over certain actions. This can be compared to Alex in CWO. In CWO, Alex has a much broader scope than the amount of free will he can exercise. The streets are full of anarchy and there is no definitive state control to keep them in line; here...... middle of paper...... with each other and could be seen as a metaphor to describe the shaping of societies within each novel. When Burgess wrote CWO, he was in Brunei. The language spoken in Brunei is Malay and the Malay word for "person" is "orang". It could therefore be argued that Burgess's main intention was to comment on society as a whole and refer solely to the people within it, in order to highlight the lack of free will and corruption of governments around the world at the time of writing this article. the novel. It is clear from the beginning that abuse of power and lack of free will are both integral themes interconnected within the novels. Both novels delve into these themes with forms of invented language that serve to harshly mock modern society (as it once was) almost imperceptibly; thus commenting and thus eschewing the status quo of the time.