56 pages • 1 hour read
Graham GreeneThe Destructors
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1954A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Old Misery’s House
Old Misery’s house is a leaning, beautiful, 200-year-old home in the London neighborhood of Northwood Terrace, an area Greene describes as “shattered” (4). The German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, commonly called the Blitz, lasted for 76 consecutive nights and destroyed over a million homes and apartments in London alone. Old Misery’s house is one of the only structures to remain standing in the neighborhood, and it sticks up like a “jagged tooth” (4). T says the house was designed by Christopher Wren, commonly considered Britain’s greatest architect, who also designed St. Paul’s Cathedral—another structure that improbably survived the Blitz. St. Paul was an apostle and is often regarded as the second most important person in the history of Christianity behind Jesus. All of this—the house’s good fortune, its endurance, its designer, and the religious significance of his work—imbues Old Misery’s house with a sacred aura. Considering that the house is dismantled by a young man who professes philosophical materialism, the house may be seen as a symbol of religious institutions or perhaps Christianity in general. Alternatively, the house might symbolize a cultural ideal guided by Christianity.
The Spiral Staircase
Old Misery’s house contains a 200-year-old, floating spiral staircase. Nothing but a well-balanced design holds it up. For many people, this might seem miraculous. For others, it might simply be a technical marvel. Others still might see it as just another thing to destroy. In a quiet way, “The Destructors” is a story about balance—or rather, the lack thereof. Though Greene was a devout and serious Catholic, he was also a globe-trotting, cosmopolitan, intellectual writer, and—for a brief period—spy. He didn’t think science was inherently evil, but he did believe humanity needs the counterbalance of religion. In the story, there are many examples of one-sidedness. The gang, subject to populist imbalance, follows Blackie and then T and then Blackie again and then T again with few checks and balances. The only thing that determines their allegiance is the leader’s confidence. T’s leadership is guided by his belief that immaterial concepts such as love and hate are “hooey” (11). For him, material things are all that exist. This lopsided belief leads him to burn Old Misery’s money and destroy his house. The staircase is one of the story’s primary symbols of balance and beauty.
The Color Gray
One way to identify how an author portrays a subject is through the author’s use of imagery, or langue that appeals to the senses. Color, and a narrative’s color scheme in general, is a key facet of imagery in literature. “The Destructors” is notable in that it contains virtually no color. Gray—or “grey” in British English—however, is a pervasive motif throughout the story. For example: “Grey ash floated above them and fell on their heads like age” (11), and “[t]he grey wet common stretched ahead, and the lamps gleamed in the puddles” (13). The story might take place in August, but it is a dusty, dreary, stormy August. T’s eyes are described “as grey and disturbed as the drab August day” (7). Even the sausage and the blanket that the boys give Old Misery are gray. This is a world of ash, rubble, dirty puddles, and mud. The story portrays postwar England as a world of lost innocence, a gray, uncaring place without sympathy or compassion. The story is a satire, but its tone is profoundly grim.
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