The use of music as a motif in (Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange 1962)] creates a lens so that the viewer is able to recognize the tendency that violence must destroy the individual's identity. Although Alex (Malcolm McDowell) clearly associates violence with his individual identity and sense of self, he consistently reveals the impossibility of remaining an individual in the face of group-oriented violence. The images created by the music coincide with the destruction of Alex's identity, both through adherence to a group's style of violence and through an inability to accept the similarity of group actions associated with violence. As the film progresses, the musical imagery follows the exit and return of his personal identity as a result of his involvement in violence. The musical references highlight the power of violence to eliminate individual identity in favor of group identity, showing the destructive effect that violence has on the human personality. All these factors show how music is used as a motif to show Alex's roller coaster ride throughout the film. One musical image, the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, illustrates the way violence steals an individual's identity and replaces it with that of a group. As Alex stages the last movement of Beethoven's symphony, he "feels the old tigers leaping into [him]" and forces himself on the two young girls he has brought with him to his lair. Alex's rape of these two girls appears to constitute an individual act of the ego, and indeed the vocal section of the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony begins with an individual voice, without any accompaniment. Alex offers this explanation: "I'm serious with you brothers about this....... middle of paper...... dominant group identity. Alex's association between violence and joy allows the viewer to understand the Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." as a direct commentary on the universal interconnectedness of those who practice violence. Linking Alex's personal violence to a concert contradicts the notion of a personalized style of violence: the concert soloist cannot exist outside of the combined identity of the group. Gang violence in prison leads to a dream in which Alex literally becomes an instrument in the orchestra, a material object with no individual character or identity. Eventually, however, Alex turns away from a violent lifestyle. This heralds the return of individual identity clarifying the role that violence plays in the destruction of individual identity, the musical references in Kubrick's work reveal the annihilation of the self as the ultimate goal of violence.