A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is one of my favorite books. The US edition was published without the 21st chapter due to the publisher having issues with the last chapter.
I happen to like the last chapter more than anything else in the book because it gives me hope. Mind you I haven't read the book in a while since I lent my copy to a junky who "lost it," but I vividly picture Alex sitting in a bar/restaurant getting his fill of food and drink yet feeling a pang of empty. The dude has been the epitome of evil throughout the book with his indifference towards others while pursuing pleasures of the flesh through ultraviolence, but yet he has come to the point where being evil doesn't get him his jollies. Sure he has a new gang, but he is just going through the motions since he knows nothing else than being a thug. It seems he's ready to play his cards as they are and live his life as such until he meets his old droog who has changed.
The book's message is that people can grow up from being punks.  There is no such thing as being stuck as a punk long as you are breathing and have a will to live and learn from your deeds. Maturity is the culmination of transgressions from which one uses as a baseline with regards to the pursuit of happiness.