English 12
02/06/2013
8, on the surface this is a story of action, suspense, and adventure. At a deeper level it is about delinquency, war, and human nature. Try to sum up what the story says about human nature in general.
The author of the story of The Destructors emphasizes on how human nature was being destructed due to the battle of battle and how the war affected people’s behavior. This story happened after the Second World War as the author referred to “the last bomb of the first blitz” (53); hence, we should know the majority of people were living in misery as they were afflicted from the pain of losing their family, houses, property and so forth due to the war. The conflict for kids was how to tear the house down as the microcosm of the war. Nations could fight each other without any consideration, which means people could do anything without observing the law. Take Trevor, the protagonist in the story, for example. He was a leader of the Wormsley Common Gang. He determined to destroy a house that survived in the Blitz. He said, “We’ll pull it down and destroy it,” (55) which show the delinquency of people that existed in the period of Second World War. Thanks to the influence of the war, they did not show the repentance about their action. When they grow up, what will happen is that they may destroy the country rather than the house. In addition, as for human nature, kids were jealous about someone who had something they did not have. It can be illustrated with the example of Blackie and Trevor. Despite the fact that Trevor said, “It’s a beautiful house,” (54) he still wanted to destroy it as he recognized beauty as something he never had and want to take it away from Old Misery. When comes to Blackie, it is also true. Besides, some of kids in gang did not have ability to think independently and critically. They just followed the orders of Trevor, which also reflects people’s human nature in that period. As far as I am