Graham Greene’s “The Destructors” offers a cyclical view of life that necessitates periodic rebirths in order to avoid abstraction and stagnation. The impermanence of things as well as relationships and emotions contributes to a recurring shuffle between two states of being which requires cyclic reinventions of individuals and their surroundings. These rebirths or re-creations emphasize the vitality of the continuous cycles of life, which encourage progression in life as opposed to idleness. Greene uses a number of distinctly opposing ideas in “The Destructors” that exemplify this complete renaissance through cycles as a necessary approach to life.
Greene’s depiction of the relationship between destruction and creation presents the most evident cyclical theme of the story. Old Misery’s house, which narrowly escaped the London bombings during World War II, stands as a historical symbol. Yet, it remains an eyesore, a “jagged tooth” (112) that houses a lonely old man who must keep up the house despite his age and rheumatics. Initially it appears that the boys want to cause trouble for the old man by completely destroying his home. But the story continues in an unpredictable direction as Greene refers to destruction as “a form of creation” (118). While the boys of the Wormsley Common Gang seek to destroy Old Misery’s house, they in turn create an opportunity for reinvention. By completely demolishing the house and all of its history, the boys pave the way for an entirely new beginning. They rid the old man of a responsibility that his age prohibits him from handling and the city of the negative history behind the bombings of the war. T’s insistence that they “destroy [the] house” (119) so that “there won’t be anything left when [they’ve] finished” (119) demonstrates a necessity for complete re-creation. At the end, the house crumbles into “a hill of rubble” and Greene emphasizes that “there [isn’t] anything left—not anything” (124). Therefore, anything can be created in the remaining empty space. The old house, including the history behind it, must completely collapse in order to move forward with new beginnings. This cycle of destruction and creation requires humans to maintain a physical connection with their environments in the present so that the weight of history does not cause stagnation within these environments.
The ambiguity between leaders and followers creates additional support for this theme of cycles creating progress. Both T and Blackie cycle through the positions of leader and follower quickly and haphazardly, yet each one is aware of when this transition between the two roles takes place. At the beginning of the story Blackie holds the leadership position, which allows him to promote petty crime among his gang members. When T takes over the leadership, Blackie notices a change in the organization of the gang that is “very different from the old happy-go-lucky ways under [Blackie’s] leadership,” (117). T explains his plan to destroy the house “with a sort of intensity” (115), concluding that in order to complete this plan “[they’d] organize” (115), something the carefree gang had never done under Blackie’s leadership. T’s tenacious attitude directly contrasts Blackie’s carefree ways. Blackie, initially depressed by his status change and offended by the “fickleness of favor” (115), soon recognizes the “hollowness of T’s leadership” (115) and returns to the gang “driven by the pure, simple and altruistic ambition of fame for the gang” (116). Here, Blackie acknowledges the arbitrariness of his leadership as well as Trevor’s and understands the need for the leader/follower cycle to continue as a means of creating new methods to galvanize the gang members into action and move forward with their goal of achieving fame. By mourning the loss of his former role, Blackie would inhibit this progression. Therefore, Blackie must detach himself from his former responsibilities and begin as an entirely new member of the gang. Blackie re-assumes leadership toward the end of the story, and T also recognizes the necessity of the continuation of the cycle. When he cannot readily formulate a plan to finish the destruction of the house his indecision forces him to realize that “his authority had gone with his ambiguity” (120). Blackie, ready to give orders, shifts roles again so that the gang avoids stagnation in their search for fame and success.
The final portrayal of the necessarily cyclical nature of life illustrates the progression related to the cycle of age. While T, Blackie, and the other young gang members appear to comprehend the requirement of cyclical re-creation, Old Misery resists these changes in favor of that with which he is familiar. While the children assume significant responsibilities as they initiate the destruction of the house, the narrator seems to criticize Old Misery’s resistance to new beginnings, particularly as he describes him trapped in his own lavatory sitting “on the loo and [pondering] with the wisdom of age,” (122). With this image Greene mocks the idea of old age signifying wisdom. The young boys, in fact, appear to demonstrate more wisdom as they acknowledge the necessity of a rebirth through the destruction of the old house. Old Misery, conversely, is fooled by the children, trapped in his own outhouse, and thus feels “dithery, confused, and old,” (122). Greene’s description of Old Misery emphasizes the man’s lack of acceptance for the impending renaissance as a result of his age while the boys work to precipitate this new beginning with the open-mindedness of youth. When Old Misery’s untimely return appears to halt the complete destruction of the house, Trevor “[protests] with the fury of the child he had never been,” (119) which denotes the unwillingness of the young to let anything inhibit the necessary renaissance that accompanies the cycles of life. As Trevor and Blackie burn the old pound notes found in Old Misery’s savings, Greene describes the ashes “[floating] above them and [falling] on their heads like age” (118). These ashes of age clearly signify the death of the old in order to make way for the young and their new creations. At the end of the story, Greene illustrates the transition from age to youth as a cyclical result of re-creation. Old Misery emerges from the lavatory “wearing a grey blanket to which flakes of pastry adhered,” (124) creating an infant-like image of the old man as he “[gives] a sobbing cry” (124) when he sees the destruction of his house. Old Misery transitions from old to young in order to make way for acceptance of change, progress and complete re-creation as the cycles of life continue.
“The Destructors” emphasizes the necessity of progress in life as opposed to immobility suffered as a result of living in the past. In order to avoid this sort of stagnation, one must embrace certain necessary cycles in life in order to give new life to the old and complacent. This requires an abandonment of the past and an acceptance of the new for a complete renaissance to occur. The themes of destruction and creation, leadership and following, and age and youth, each demonstrate how active progression in life can only occur by embracing these cyclical rebirths.
Works Cited
Greene, Graham. “The Destructors.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense 10th ed. Eds. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. [111-124].
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This class has not only strengthened my confidence in some of my current skills in writing, but it has also prompted me to improve my writing using techniques to which I had never formerly been introduced. In critiquing others’ work I also discovered a variety of specific strategies to improve my own writing. These strategies would be hard to specifically describe without previously seeing a beneficial use for them in the work of someone else. While my writing can certainly always use improvement, this class has challenged me to grow intellectually and express my thoughts in a clear and concise manner through the written word.
While I previously felt confident in writing analyses of literature, I’ve found that my writing sometimes seems a little too stiff by fitting exactly to the rules of writing such an essay. Instead of reminding the reader of the thesis constantly in the supporting paragraphs, one can simply imply the connection so as not to appear repetitive. In my analysis of the short story “The Destructors”, my thesis centered on the idea of necessary cyclical rebirths encouraging progression in life. By repeating this idea in different words, and reusing words (such as “renaissance”) fairly frequently, the wording of the essay became a bit redundant. While the importance of sticking to the thesis remains primary, I could avoid reiterating its main idea at the end of every paragraph to give the essay some breathing room. This, in turn, lends the analysis some more credibility by allowing it to stand on its own without needing to be defended by excessive repetition of the thesis.
However, connecting ideas back to the thesis remains important so the essay doesn’t stray too far from the main point in such a short paper. By venturing too far from the thesis, one may introduce too many complications in the paper which would require a longer work to expand on all of the ideas enough to draw a clear connection between them and the thesis. In my second essay, which analyzed poems by Walt Whitman and Alan Ginsberg, I incorporated the ideas of sanctity and profanity, spiritual fulfillment through the physical world, and Whitman’s grand representation of ideas versus Ginsberg’s more confined form of expression.
By trying to formulate a thesis that clearly discussed all of these ideas, I created an overly complicated essay that focused on what the poets do in their poems but forgot to address why they express themselves in these ways. In writing this paper, I originally tried to step away from my thesis a bit to loosen up my writing, but in this case it backfired by trying to mesh too many ideas into one short essay. Therefore, I learned not to sacrifice the tightness or clarity of the paper by trying to overcomplicate the thesis.
The critiques of others’ essays were a new project for me, and I found it challenging to specifically describe how they might be able to improve their essays, especially knowing that my own essays could benefit from some of the same improvements. Often, the essays seemed to suffer from the lack of a strong and unique thesis. I also found myself struggling not to point out the obvious in the arguments of my own papers. However, noticing this flaw in others’ papers encouraged me to thoroughly examine my own theses and arguments to make sure they did not attempt to prove an idea with which no one would argue. In learning how to articulate the specific shortcomings in others’ papers, I more clearly understood how to avoid those problems or how to fix them in my own work. Thus, development of an innovative argument or thesis remains a crucial yet difficult concept to master. By practicing the formulation of unique theses in critiquing a variety of essays, I feel I have become more proficient in doing the same in my own papers.
While this class provided various challenges for me and significantly improved my writing skills, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the creation of different arguments in my essays. In looking at prose, poetry, or theater from an angle other than that by which most others view it, I found a new appreciation for the depth of literature. The endless possibilities that lie in the development of unique analyses of literature stimulated my interest in finding and arguing for new perspectives on these works. Thus, this class not only taught me how to become a better reader, writer, and analyzer, but also heightened my interest in writing by reminding me of the limitless nature of literature.
-Katie Storm
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