The Destructors
The Destructors is a1954 short story by Graham Greene .
action
The Destructors is set at the time of writing. The story is about a gang of boys who are called the "Wormsley Common Gang" after their neighborhood. Fifteen-year-old Trevor, nicknamed "T", is the new leader of the gang. “T” is the child of a “better family” that has sunk into the lower class, while the other gang members come from lower class families.
"T" developed the plan to destroy a two hundred year old house built by Christopher Wren , which was the only one in the area to withstand the German air raids during the war. Under "T" the gang accepts the plan and carries it out, while the owner of the house, the old-fashioned but well-meaning elderly Mr. Thomas, whom the gang calls "Old Misery", goes to the coast during a bank holiday weekend has driven. Your plan is to first inconspicuously destroy the inside of the house and only last to tear down the outer walls. Mr. Thomas' savings of 70 pounds , which they find in the destruction operation, burns "T", who always insists that the gang is not a gang of thieves. However, Mr. Thomas returns home earlier than expected due to the bad weather and the gang locks him up in the outhouse . The leader "T" refuses to stop until the destruction is complete, because the facade is valuable too and could be reused if it stops. The final damage to the house occurs when early the next morning a parked truck unintentionally pulls the support post from the side of the house (this was attached because of the war damage) to which the gang had tied it with a rope. Mr. Thomas is freed from the outhouse by the driver of this truck and is left with the dusty remains of his former home; the truck driver breaks out in laughter.
Meaning and reception
The story caused a sensation because of its neutral-factual, sometimes even slightly positive depiction of an apparently senseless act of violence, not even serving the gang's own advantage, the victim of which is not a culprit, but a friendly elderly gentleman. By writing in the third person, but always from the attitude of the protagonists, the author turns the reader into an accomplice. Greene was also accused of being immoral in the final scene, in which the damaged Mr. Thomas is not pityed by the truck driver, but rather laughed at.
The dissatisfaction simmering beneath the surface of parts of British youth in the post-war period is an issue here early on. At the same time, the story also deals with questions about the nature of good and evil, precisely because it repeatedly points out that "T" apparently has no goal other than destruction for its own sake, while the other gang members, who are still more childlike, get understandable results, namely Fame and recognition through other gangs or fortune, hope for.
Production on television
The Destructors was adapted from television as an episode of the British television series Shades of Greene . The actors Michael Byrne , Phil Daniels and Nicholas Drake appeared in this episode.
Allusion and references in other works
- In the 2001 movie Donnie Darko , the main character contributes to a discussion of The Destructors in his English class.
- The action could be the short story We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier inspired. The plot of this short story begins with a group of teenagers ravaging a house, the rest is about the effect of vandalism on the homeowners.
Individual evidence
- ↑ IMDB entry for The Destructors . Retrieved February 23, 2011.