The boys' destruction of the house became a form of creation. “We aren’t thieves,” T. replies; “Nobody is going to steal anything from this house.” He then proceeds to burn them one by one as an act of celebration, presumably a celebration of triumph over the currency that more than any other entity determines the distinctions of social strata in postwar Great Britain. Their demolishing of the house is painfully systematic. "The Destructors" has a Blitz theme in the way that it shows the years of devastation that occurred even a decade after the war had come to an end.The boys meet every day on a vacant lot that used to be homes, but none have been rebuilt and the lot lies devastated and empty. Blackie was the leader of the gang of delinquents. Greene's story contains different themes that could be seen as important to its overall meaning. "“The Destructors” and Other Stories Themes". You'll also get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and 300,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts.Graham Greene's short story "The Destructors" utilizes the contrast between Old Misery's house and the Wormsley Common gang to depict the theme of Old England versus the new up-and-coming, post-war...We can state the central theme in a couple of ways, but I think the main idea of this story is this: Extreme circumstances can drive people to act in ways that do not fit their usual characters....Graham Greene's use of language is one thing that sets this story apart from commercial fiction. Blackie's idea of steaking bus rides becomes overridden. The members of the Wormsley Common Gang—who significantly are twelve in number, like the apostles of the New Testament—are forces of change, agents subconsciously representing quiet, methodical revolution. His opinion and philosophy doesn't represent the other boys - they just like tearing things down or causing trouble. When T suggests destroying Old Misery's house from the inside out, the other gang members are intrigued.
As with other stories written about post-WWII children -- most notably, William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” -- “The Destructors” deals extensively with the gang members’ slow, but inevitable loss of innocence. 3. This is another example of the importance of loyalty as far as Blackie is concerned.Britain was, and remains, a place with a deeply embedded class system, and it is enormously difficult for a person to cross from one class to another. this section. Trevor, though, is symbolically tearing down the hierarchical history of social class that he hates. The beauty of Old Misery's house was a foreign concept to the gang of boys until "T" or Trevor showed up. This demonstrates the austerity that came into practice after the war when it was simply not possible to fund redevelopment for several decades. He realizes that demolishing the house will be the most notorious thing that the Wormsley Street Gang has done to date and his loyalty to furthering the future of the gang means that he is in full support of it. Can you give me an example? "The Destructors" is a 1954 short story written by Graham Greene, first published in Picture Post and subsequently collected in Twenty-One Stories later that year. The main theme of Graham Greene's short story, "The Destructors," is conflict between the old and young. Greene also uses metaphors to allow the reader to make connectiosn between "The Destructors" and...Graham Greene chose the name "The Destructors" instead of the "The Destroyers" for the title of his short story because the Wormsley Common gang works at destroying as if it were an act of...Greene's story contains different themes that could be seen as important to its overall meaning. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. One of the main themes of the story "The Destructors" is loyalty.
The truck driver, with his reassurance to Mr. Thomas that his laughter is nothing personal, reflects the position of the underclass: utter indifference to the sacrosanct values of tradition and civilized society. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Destructors, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. The fact that the truck driver laughs at the terrible wrong done to Mr Thomas indicates that this is not just something felt by the young and rebellious but something that has been a silent resentment within the working classes as a whole.Primarily because of the time of his writing them, many of the stories in this anthology have a World War Two theme.