Return Home and Rejection
Return Home and Rejection marks the first crushing encounter between Alex, freshly released from the Ludovico Technique treatment, and the world he once terrorized. After two years in prison and a fortnight of brutal conditioning, Alex expects a warm homecoming; instead, he finds his room occupied by a stranger, his possessions sold, and his parents too afraid or unwilling to reclaim him. The event shatters any illusion that his punishment is over and drives him into the streets, homeless and alone, setting the stage for his subsequent victimization by the very society he once preyed upon.
Arrival and Discovery
Early on a winter morning, Alex arrives at Municipal Flatblock 18A, his heart pounding with excitement at surprising his parents. The building itself shows signs of change: the lift is working and clean, and the once-graffiti-covered municipal painting of the Dignity of Labour has been scrubbed clean of all obscene additions. Using his own key, Alex enters the family flat at 10-8 and finds his parents at breakfast—but also a third person, a thick-set man in his shirt and braces, who speaks first: "Who are you, friend? Where did you get hold of a key? Out, before I push your face in." Alex's mother immediately assumes he has escaped from prison and begins to cry, while his father looks bewildered. The stranger, introduced as Joe, is a lodger who has taken over Alex's room and, as he puts it, become "more like a son to them than like a lodger."
Confrontation and Loss
Alex demands to see his room and, pushing past Joe, finds it transformed: his flags are gone, replaced by pictures of boxers and a sports team; his stereo and disc-cupboard are missing; his locked treasure-chest, containing bottles and syringes, has vanished. His father explains that the police sold all his belongings under a new regulation requiring compensation for victims—specifically, to pay for the care of the cat lady's cats after her death. Alex, feeling the onset of the conditioned sickness as anger rises, struggles to control himself. Joe taunts him, calling him a "mannerless young swine" and declaring that Alex has only made his parents suffer. Alex's mother weeps, and his father admits they cannot simply kick Joe out because he has paid the next month's rent and has a two-year contract. "Your son has just been nothing but a terrible nuisance," Alex says bitterly, and begins to cry himself.
Expulsion and Aftermath
Joe refuses to leave, insisting that Alex should "go off and find a room somewhere" and learn the error of his ways. Alex's parents offer no resistance; his mother continues to sob, and his father makes only a weak protest. Feeling utterly unwanted and unloved, Alex declares he will leave and never return, letting it "lie heavy on your consciences." He staggers out of the flat, leaving his parents and Joe behind. The event is a complete inversion of the homecoming he imagined: instead of a hero's return, he is a pariah; instead of a loving family, he finds a stranger who has taken his place; instead of comfort, he receives only rejection. The conditioning that was supposed to make him good has made him helpless, unable even to fight for his own home. This rejection propels him into a series of further victimizations—the library attack, the beating by Billyboy and Dim, and his eventual stay with F. Alexander—that will ultimately lead to his suicide attempt and his final, ambiguous reconciliation with the state.
