"The Destructors" by Graham Greene

All humans are often creative in what they do, and their imagination is based on what they see in their environment. In the short story "The Destructors" by Graham Greene, a group of boys who call themselves the Wormsley Common, are faced with many difficult decisions to make. "It was on the eve of August Bank Holiday that the latest recruit became the leader of the Wormsley Commom Gang"(Graham Greene). Trevor, the new leader and protagonist of the story whom the boys call T. for short, suggests for the boys to destroy a 200-year-old house, which has survived the German Blitz attacks. The gang accepts the plan, and carries it out when Mr. Thomas, who lives at the house, is away for Bank Holiday. After Mr. Thomas decides to come home early, the boys are faced with a difficult decision of whether to flee the house and leave it how it is, or to finish it off as previously planned. Greene establishes that T. is really different from the rest of the gang when the fifteen year old says,"' it's a beautiful house'". Trevor's differences from the boys are mostly because of his upper class, knowledgeable, yet unhappy upbringing. When T. is surprised by Mr. Thomas's early appearance at the house " he protested with the fury of the child he had never been". T. was only one year old when the German Blitz attacks happened, therefore he and the other boys had seen evil around them their whole life. This made T. become a destructor himself. He was still young enough to be innocent, yet he made cruel and selfish choices. This shows he has a twisted sense of right and wrong.

The gang in this story was out to show that they still exist in their community and that they don't like to be looked down on. The boys believed that if they destroyed this house "even the grown-ups gangs who ran the betting at the all- in wresting and the barrow-boys would hear with respect". This gang of boys has been meeting in this parking lot for almost all of their life. Beside where they played stood Mr.