Alex and Dim

Alex and Dim are introduced as two members of a four-strong teenage gang, with Alex as the undisputed leader and Dim as the dimmest and most physically brutal follower. Dim is described as "very very ugly and like his name" and "a horrorshow filthy fighter and very handy with the boot" . Alex holds Dim in contempt for his stupidity and lack of refinement, yet relies on his raw violence in gang fights, noting that "poor old Dim, for all his dimness, was worth three of the others in sheer madness and dirty fighting" .

Tension and the First Break

The first serious rupture in their relationship occurs in the Korova Milkbar when Dim lets out a vulgar noise after a woman sings a fragment of opera. Alex, enraged by what he sees as a gross insult to the music, leans across and punches Dim on the mouth, drawing blood . Dim is shocked and protests, saying "I don't like you should do what you done then. And I'm not your brother no more and wouldn't want to be" . Alex insists on his right to lead and discipline, but Dim challenges him, threatening a knife fight: "Yarbles... great bolshy yarblockos to you. What you done then you had no right. I'll meet you with chain or nozh or britva any time" . The other gang members side with Dim, and Alex senses his authority slipping, noting that "Dim has got to learn his place" .

Betrayal and the Chain Attack

The relationship reaches its breaking point during the attempted burglary of the Manse. After Alex enters the house alone and knocks out the elderly cat lady, he hears police sirens and rushes to the front door. There he finds Dim, who has not fled with the others. Instead of helping, Dim attacks him: "Dim said: 'You stay to meet them huh huh huh,' and then I viddied that he had his oozy out, and then he upped with it and it snaked whishhh and he chained me gentle and artistic like on the glazlids" . Dim then explains his motive: "I don't like you should do what you done, old droogy. Not right it wasn't to get on to me like the way you done, brat" . This act of deliberate blinding leads directly to Alex's arrest and imprisonment.

Reversal: Dim as Police Officer

After Alex is released from prison and subjected to the Ludovico Technique, he encounters Dim again in a shocking reversal. Dim has become a police officer, partnered with their former enemy Billyboy . When Alex is attacked by old men in the Public Biblio, it is Dim and Billyboy who arrive as the police, and they take Alex to a remote country spot to administer "summary punishment." Dim now insists on being called "Officer" and says he does not remember the old days "too horrorshow" . During the beating, Dim and Billyboy take turns hitting Alex, and Dim delivers a final blow before they leave him lying on the cold grass . The relationship thus completes a full arc from leader and follower to betrayer and betrayed, and finally to uniformed oppressor and helpless victim.