The story, The Destructors, by Graham Greene is an interesting one that revolves around a destructive teenage gang-the Wormsley Common Gang-and their journey

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The story, ‘The Destructors’, by Graham Greene is an interesting one that revolves around a destructive teenage gang-the Wormsley Common Gang-and their journey. Greene uses many techniques like themes, settings, characters, literary devices and paradoxes to make this extract powerful and striking.

‘The Destructors’ is set in the 1960s.after the world war 2 when a new generation grows up in the remains of the past. The setting plays an important role as it elucidates the gang’s motives any goals. They meet everyday in the car park area. This shows how their surroundings influence them. A large part of their neighborhood is destroyed. They compare a house that didn’t fall or get destroyed in the bombings to a jagged tooth. These pitiful remains represent inequality and injustice blatantly.

The prevailing themes that complement behavior of the gang in the Destructors are post-war mentalities, injustice, loss of innocence and destruction as a form of creation. As the Destructors is set post-war, Graham Greene brings out the mentality of the people. The gang doesn’t trust anyone to have genuinely kind nature. They feel the inequality of the world in many ways and lose faith in humanity. The main motive of the gang is to make their own world order; to create equality and justice in destructive and cruel ways. The loss of innocence is evident - Mike the solemnity of a meeting with the saying ‘I’ve got to go to church’. This reminds the readers of their tender age that is being ruined. Their childhood is spent in horrible and disastrous plans and schemes. The last theme, one of destruction, being a form a creation show that the group take refuge in annihilation as an art form. They are proud of they’re of their destruction due to their absurd war mentalities.
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Characterization in the “The Destructor” plays a crucial role in portraying the violent nature of the gang. Trevor or T is a cold, emotionless boy who inspires the gang to destroy. He has a heartless personality. He believes that “destruction is after all a form of creation” and he has truly lost faith in human emotion and feeling. “All this love and hate” he said, “it’s soft, it’s hooey”. T resorts to destruction to bring about justice; his family lost their status and came down in the world.

Blackie, however, is portrayed as innocent and naive. ...

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