The Destructors
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"The Destructors" is a 1954 short story by Graham Greene.
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[edit] Plot summary
The story, set in the mid-1950s, revolves round a gang of boys called Wormsley Common, the place where they live. Trevor, or T, the protagonist, devises a plan to destroy a 200-year-old house that survived the Blitz, simply because it is beautiful. Under their new leader, T., the gang accepts the plan and carries it out when the owner of the house, Mr. Thomas (whom the gang refers to as Old Misery), is away during a Bank Holiday weekend. The plan is to destroy the house from the inside, and then tear down what remains of the infrastructure. Mr Thomas returns home early, and the gang locks him in his own outhouse and completes the destruction of his home. T refuses to stop until the job is complete, because even the facade is valuable and could be reused.
[edit] Major themes
The story explores the human destructive impulse. The house is a priceless and historic creation of the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren, and the boys, under the guidance of T, do not just engage in casual vandalism; they work long and hard to systematically destroy every part of the house.
There are several ways to understand the story. It is about juvenile delinquency. It is also about a clash between generations: when the gang tears down Old Misery's house, they mean to erase all of the Old Misery implemented by Mr Thomas' generation. According to Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense (c. 1988) "the dislocations caused by a devastating war may produce among the young a conscious or unconscious rebellion against all the values of the reigning society – a rebellion in which the creative instincts are channeled into destructive enterprises."
[edit] Allusions/references from other works
In the film Donnie Darko, the eponymous lead character valuably contributes to its discussion in English class. Some of Donnie Darko's actions seem to be inspired by the story.
The story may have also inspired Robert Cormier's novel We All Fall Down. Cormier's novel begins with a group of teenagers trashing a house while the owners are away. The rest of the novel deals with the effect the vandalism has on the owners and their family.
