Writers often present characters who are out of step with their society, and often this occurs because the values of that society are seen as warped or misguided. Three British novelists have created youthful characters who show a strong reaction against society and authority. Viewed objectively, the youthful characters in Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, Alan Sillitoe's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange might be considered evil or psychologically troubled, but they must also be seen as products of their society, as personalities shaped by the problems of that society and by the warped values the society has come to represent. An analysis of the two novels and one short story shows how the authors address the limitations of their society and the culpability society has in the crimes committed by their youthful characters.
The nature of the anti-social behavior of the young protagonists in these novels covers a wide range, from the outright criminal activity of the gangster in Brighton Rock and the urban marauder of A Clockwork Orange to the evidence of a troubled mind in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. The manner in which these characters perceive their own condition and what they do about it also differs from one book to the next, and for that matter the attitude assumed by the respective authors as to what can be done or should be done about these troubled young people also differs. What seems quite similar in the three books is the attitude of the authors toward the social milieu, a milieu which in each case is shown to be hypocritical and based on false values that are contributory to the problems of society and more specifically to the tensions within these young people.
Critics and reviewers saw Alan Sillitoe as a proletarian writer when he appeared with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and it was for this reason that he was placed with the other novelists ...