A Clockwork Orange It's Not

An Arizona boy who, at age 8, shot and killed his stepfather and another man has been sentenced to a treatment facility. The term is indeterminate, but could continue until he is 18, with psychiatric evaluations due to the court every 2 ½ years.

The type of treatment the boy will receive is unclear. He is still only 10, however, so the jarring images of heavy-handed reprogramming at the end of A Clockwork Orange are not really age-appropriate. The young ruffians in Kubrick’s film were twice the age of the boy in this case.

The boy will not be allowed outside the facility, and it wasn’t clear from the CNN account whether his mother will be visiting him. She should probably get some treatment of her own. Evidence indicated that the boy was repeatedly spanked by his stepfather at his mother’s request.

As things stand, it’s all so very sad. Is rehabilitation somehow possible, because the human spirit is resilient? Or is the sentence to treatment merely a way of passing the buck, by a judicial system unclear about underlying principles of justice?

Precious

Imagine growing up in a living hell of abuse and victimization. Raped repeatedly by your father, resulting in two incestuous children. Verbally abused and physically assaulted by your mother, practically 24/7.

You live in poverty, an African American on welfare in Harlem in the 1980s. Because of the violence and neglect in your home, you are practically illiterate, and are also morbidly obese. When you find out you’re pregnant for a second time by your father, there are times you wish you were dead.

But somehow, deep within you, there is a deep capacity for survival and perseverance. You find a caring mentor, who helps you begin to build a new life, beyond abuse and degradation.

This is the story told in “Precious,” a film based on the novel “Push.”



I saw the film yesterday and was very much moved.