1960

The year 1960 surfaces in the novel as a specific temporal anchor within the personal effects of the old professor whom Alex and his droogs assault on their first evening of violence. After stripping the man and rifling through his pockets, the gang finds "a few starry letters, some of them dating right back to 1960 with 'My dearest dearest' in them and all that chepooka." The letters, preserved for years, belong to a world of private affection and continuity that stands in stark opposition to the casual, present-tense brutality the gang has just inflicted. The year 1960 thus marks a boundary between a remembered past of intimate relationships and a present in which such relics are treated as worthless clutter, tossed aside or read aloud for mockery. Dim, the dimmest of the four, picks up one of the letters and recites its tender lines—"My darling one, I shall be thinking of you while you are away and hope you will remember to wrap up warm when you go out at night"—in a high, mocking voice, then pretends to wipe himself with the paper. The scene uses the year 1960 to dramatize the gang's contempt for the emotional world of the older generation: the professor's letters, dating from a time when the gang members were not yet born or were very small children, represent a code of care and vulnerability that Alex and his droogs find only laughable. The year itself is never again mentioned in the novel, but its single appearance performs a concentrated thematic function, compressing into one detail the chasm between the sentimental, letter-writing culture of the mid-century and the nihilistic, ultra-violent youth culture that has superseded it.