Beating by police

The Beating by police is a pivotal event in Part Three of A Clockwork Orange, where Alex, newly released from the Ludovico Technique conditioning, is brutally assaulted by his former droog Dim and his old enemy Billyboy, who have both become police officers. This attack, carried out as a "summary punishment" in the countryside, shatters Alex's fragile hope of a new life and drives him to seek refuge at the cottage of F. Alexander, setting the stage for the novel's final political and personal reckonings.

Circumstances and Recognition

After the attack in the Public Biblio by elderly men seeking revenge for his past crimes, Alex is rescued by police officers who arrive to break up the riot. Dazed and unable to see clearly, he is held by a young officer he does not know, but the other two have backs he is sure he has seen before. When they turn around, Alex recognizes them with horror: one is Billyboy, his old enemy from the gang fights of Part One, and the other is Dim, who had been his droog before betraying him to the police two years earlier. Both are now wearing police uniforms and helmets, carrying whips to keep order. Dim greets him with the old guff Alex remembers so well: "Huh huh huh." Alex protests that it is impossible, that they are too young to be police officers, but Billyboy explains that they are now of job-age, and Dim adds that Alex was always the youngest of the group. When Alex asks about Pete, Dim says he seems to remember the name but offers no further information. Billyboy, no longer as fat as he had been, declares that naughty little malchicks handy with cut-throat britvas must be kept under.

The Drive and the Assault

The officers take Alex in a police patrol car, with the young officer called Rex driving. They drive out of town into the countryside, all winter-bare but lonely and lovely, as Billyboy explains that it is not right for lewdies in the town to see too much of their summary punishments. Alex tries to appeal to them, saying the old days are dead and gone, that he has been punished and cured for what he did in the past. Dim acknowledges that the Super read all that out to them and said it was a very good way, but this does not stop them. When Alex makes a sarcastic remark about Dim still being too dim to read for himself, Dim responds gently and regretfully, "Not to speak like that. Not no more, droogie," and then launches a bolshy tolchock right on Alex's cluve, making red nose-krovvy start to drip. Alex, bitter, says there was never any trust, that he was always on his oddy knocky. Billyboy chooses a spot in the country with bare trees, distant bird twitters, and the whirring sound of a farm machine. It is getting dusk, the height of winter, with no lewdies or animals about, just the four of them. The driver Rex sits at the wheel of the auto, smoking a cancer and reading a small book by the auto's light, taking no notice of what Billyboy and Dim do to Alex. The assault is described only as panting and thudding against the background of whirring farm engines and twittwittering in the bare branches, with the driver turning pages calmly. One of the attackers says "About enough, droogie. I should think, shouldn't you?" and they give Alex one final tolchock on the litso each before he falls over and lies on the grass, cold but not feeling it. They dust their rookers, put back on their helmets and tunics, and get back into the auto. Billyboy says "Be viddying you some more sometime, Alex," and Dim gives one of his old clowny guffs. The driver finishes the page he was reading, puts his book away, starts the auto, and they drive off townwards, Alex's ex-droog and ex-enemy waving.

Consequences and Aftermath

Alex lies on the grass, fagged and shagged, hurting badly. Then the rain starts, all icy. He can see no lewdies in sight, no lights of houses. He has no home and not much cutter in his carmans. He cries for himself boo hoo hoo, then gets up and starts walking. The beating directly leads him to seek shelter at the cottage called HOME, the house of F. Alexander, the writer whose home Alex and his droogs had invaded and whose wife they had raped and beaten two years earlier. Alex does not recognize the cottage at first, but when he knocks and is let in by the kind writer, he realizes where he is. F. Alexander, who does not recognize Alex because of the masks worn during the earlier attack, takes him in, gives him whisky, cleans his wounds, draws him a hot bath, and provides a warm supper. During this stay, F. Alexander reveals that his wife died from the brutal rape and beating, and Alex, remembering his own role in that crime, begins to feel sick and in pain. The beating thus sets in motion the final sequence of the novel, where Alex becomes a political pawn for the opposition party led by F. Alexander and his associates, leading to Alex's suicide attempt, his recovery in the hospital, and his eventual reconciliation with the government, which reverses the effects of the Ludovico Technique and restores his capacity for violence.