Alex gets his release, but upon returning home, finds that he is not welcome: his personal belongings have been confiscated (sold, so that the money made might go towards the care of the cats of the woman Alex murdered, as well as other victims), and his parents have taken in a lodger, Joe. Dejected and suddenly with no place in the world, Alex begins to contemplate suicide in a way that will not be painful or cause any more nausea − and visits the public library in order to discover what sort of poison he might take to end his life. There he is spotted by one of his former victims, the librarian, who, accompanied by his friends, exacts his revenge (this is referred to as the aged attacking the youth). Alex is unable to strike back for an overpowering fear of sickness over being beaten − the police are alerted. The police who arrive are his old cohort Dim as well as Billyboy, the former leader of a rival gang whom Alex fought earlier. Alex is taken out onto the edge of town and is beaten harshly − left alone in the desolate nothing on the outskirts of the city.
Alex stumbles to the nearest house for help, which turns out to be that of F. Alexander, whose wife Alex had raped and beaten earlier in the book. At first Alex is not recognized. Though as he stays with his guest, it becomes clear that F. Alexander begins to suspect something: memories of names that Alex accidentally mentions, etc. Alex discovers that F. Alexander’s wife has died, apparently through sickness, though her still living husband insists that it was her rape that killed her, when she died several months later. Because of his grief, F. Alexander has become obsessed with bringing down the State that has failed him, and, upon hearing Alex’s tale, intends to use him as a tool against the government; being an example of the terrible things that the State are capable of. It is unclear as to whether F. Alexander’s friends lock Alex in a room and play the fictitious “Symphony Number 3 Of The Danish veck Otto Skadelig” at full volume. Whether it was revenge or not, it does seem extremely likely that their intention was for Alex to be in great pain after listening to the music. Alexander’s cohorts successfully “prove” that such government-sanctioned conditioning should not be supported.
Unable to stand the pain, Alex throws himself out of the window attempting suicide. He survives the fall with broken bones and wakes in a hospital, informed that his tormentors have been arrested. When he hit the road after jumping, Alex hit his head on the road, effectively ending the hold that Ludovico’s Technique had over him. Alex realizes this after imagining himself murdering and torturing his tormentors without inducing feelings of nausea. The chapter ends with “I was cured all right”. (This is the point at which the U.S. edition of the book ended, implying that Alex would return to his ways of violent delinquency.)
The actual final chapter begins identically to the first; Alex has formed a new gang and reverted to his previous criminality. On this particular night, however, he decides not to join them and goes for a walk on his own instead. In a café, he bumps into the last of his old gang members, Pete. To Alex’s astonishment, Pete is now married and has become a respectable member of society.
After conversing with Pete and his wife, Alex has an epiphany, renouncing violence on the one hand, but on the other concluding that his behaviour was an unavoidable part of youth, and that if he had a son, he would not be able to stop him from doing what he himself did.