What is free will?

This book really has not turned out to be anything that I originally thought it would be: a tale of a young man who causes trouble and eventually learns a lesson. It has now become a question of morality. Normally I would like to avoid the topic of God and what He wants for us, but due to the nature of the novel, that has now become a major concern.

A little background should be given of the recent plot developments before I dive into this controversial question. Alex has recently been captured by the police and thrown into jail for murder. While in jail, he works with a minister and learns little tidbits about the Catholic religion. Just as it looks as if things are shaping up and he will be released soon, Alex kills another prisoner in his jail cell, and the impending light is shut off. He is given the opportunity to become a guinea pig for a new “cure” for the motives behind violence. This is where the question of God’s plan comes into action. The doctors and prison personnel educate him through association. Alex is forced to watch horrible movies of people being killed and tortured. The purpose behind this, is so that when he goes to commit the acts that he had done before, he will feel sick and not want to do it. His free will is forcibly being changed for the good of society. Alex is released from prison back into society after the “cure” is completed. By definition of Catholic doctrine, free will “has commanded [man] to obey the moral law, and has promised to reward or punish him for observance or violation of this law, made the reality of moral liberty an issue of transcendent importance”. From my interpretation, this means that God has created a moral law for man to follow, and he has the choice of whether or not he wants to follow this law. The moral liberty is that man has the choice to follow the law or not. By doing what the doctors have done in A Clockwork Orange to Alex, they have taken away that moral liberty of choice. The doctors think that God would want all of man to be good and follow the righteous side of His moral law, but they are wrong according to Catholic doctrine and my own opinion. I cringed when I was reading that Alex was being forced to act a certain way, even though the other is unacceptable in society. Another source that I found claimed that teenagers do not have the proper morality to make their own decisions, because those morals are still being developed. This is completely false. People of every age have the ability to make their own decisions. Even though teens sometimes don’t make the best decisions, they should not be rectified by a bunch of men in white lab coats. God has intended for everyone to develop their own morals, without the forcible influence of others. Tampering with morality is tampering with free will, no matter the age of the subject.