The Destructors Theme

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Amanda Zgorski Cynthia Leavelle English 102.10 February 20, 2012 “The Destructors” “The Destructors” was written nine years after World War II in Britain. The older generation was still able to look back to their history and good times before the war, but some children only knew the war. The Wormsley Common Gang displayed selfish acts through violence clearly demonstrated through the theme, style, and symbols in the story. Blackie is the initial leader of the gang, innocent leader, and one who did not plan on hurting anyone or destroying anything. “At Blackie’s suggestion the gang was to disperse in pairs, take buses at random and see how many rides could be snatched from unwary conductors (the operation was to be carried out in pairs…show more content…
The black and white colors mean that everything seems to crumble around the children. It stays grim, lonely, and everything seems hopeless. They see Old Misery’s house as happiness, colorful, lively, and what they want. Before they destroyed the house, it was colorful but as Kolin describes, “Gray is an appropriate color for emptiness.” The house has nothing left inside the outer walls so it is now empty or “gray.” The nice furniture, floors, antiques are now either in pieces or ashes. All that was colorful is not. In the Destructors, “He [referring to Old Misery] was wearing a grey blanket to which flakes of pastry adhered” (125) Old Misery came out of the outhouse wearing a gray blanket and bits of food (sausage), that the casing was gray showing that even the food looked gray. This is showing that his life went from colorful and happy to gray and…show more content…
The economy is not well in today’s world but the people have not had to endure bombs going off all around us. Actions like that would probably change the way things were viewed. The act of destroying someone’s home because they still have something you don’t is not acceptable. In today’s world, one would hope children would remain happy for that person whose home was still
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