“The Destructors”, written by Graham Greene, consists of many different elements of fiction. In this particular short story, Graham Greene uses key elements to mold the story into a masterpiece. Greene uses the aftermath of World War II on which to base his intriguing plot and allows his characters to become like real life people, while at the same time including the theme with its overwhelming thoughts of the effects of war.

First, Greene chooses the aftermath of World War II to center around his plot. The story opens at the beginning of Bank Holiday, the day that the “last recruitment”, Trevor, also called “T” arrived and joined the Wormsley Common Gang. The gang met in a car park every morning and voted on the events of the day that would certainly include, in one way or another, some sort of destruction or “pinching”, more commonly known as stealing. On one particular morning, the group decided,

Lastly is the cleverly woven theme that centers around the thought that war leaves permanent marks of not only the adults of society, but maybe even more so on the children. The children in this story were raised in a time where nothing beautiful was appreciated, even by the adults of this society. This is found very vividly at the conclusion of the story when the driver of the car that pulled down the house could do nothing but laugh at what had been done.

Secondly, the intense characterization in “The Destructors” is intriguing. In the beginning when Trevor seems to underhandedly take control of the gang, we sense a great deal of jealousy coming from Blackie, the former leader, when he goes to the back of the parking lot and begins kicking stones. He kicks one stone so hard it that it scraped the paint off one car. Old Misery is created by Greene to be a nice older man, who is proud of his home. This is apparent by the way that he offers chocolates

Some topics in this essay:
Blackie Misery, Common Gang, War II, Bank Holiday, Graham Greene, Fiction Destructors, elements fiction, bank holiday, short story, World War, world war ii, aftermath world war, graham greene, aftermath world, adults society, common gang, war ii, plot story, “the destructors”,