"The Destructors" by Graham Greene is set in England just after the end of World War II. The city is still ravaged from war, and there is a distinct lack of beauty around the area where the boys are living. However, prior to the start of the war, Blackie and the rest of the gang, with the exception of T, had grown up in a poorer community where they would not have had the opportunity to place value on something such as the beauty of a home. The idea of noticing the beauty of a home is a foreign concept to Blackie and the gang. The comment about the home being beautiful highlights a detail that Blackie is already innately aware of; T is different from them. The fact that T can notice and point out the beauty of a home demonstrates that his upbringing is different from the the rest of the gang; he comes from a higher class and does not belong with them, which is a point that will lead to a larger conflict later in the story.
T. says that Mr. Thomas's house is "beautiful." For Blackie, as for the other boys in the Wormsley Common Gang, this is an alien concept. The members of the gang are working class boys, poor boys who've grown up in considerable squalor. For them, a house is never beautiful; in fact, nothing is. Their entire world is utterly bereft of beauty; it's just not something they ever get to see on a daily basis. The whole idea of a beautiful house is so strange to them that it might as well come from another planet. Although it's T.'s idea to destroy Mr. Thomas's house, the other boys go along with the plan willingly, and with great enthusiasm. As they have no true comprehension of beauty, it's all too easy for them to go ahead and wreck the place. This is the only world they've ever known; the only one they understand.
No comments:
Post a Comment