The Destructors: Suggestion about human nature? On the surface this is a story of action, suspence, and adventure. At a deeper level it is about delinquency, war, and human nature. What does the...
On the surface this is a story of action, suspence, and adventure. At a deeper level it is about delinquency, war, and human nature. What does the story say about human nature in general?
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calendarEducator since 2012
write2,471 answers
starTop subjects are Literature, History, and Social Sciences
The story suggests that destruction is part of human nature. It is infinitely more easy to destroy something beautiful, than it is to create it. The boys in the Wormsley Common gang are a microcosm of the senseless destruction and total war ideology of World War II.
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calendarEducator since 2009
write13,728 answers
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I do agree with the posts above, however I also believe that this story is making a wider point about the impact of war on human nature and the resulting destruction - both physical and moral. Remember that Greene chose to set this story in the aftermath of World War II in a bomb-torn London which had seen so much destruction and death. Out of the ashes of this conflict a whole generation of children had grown up who knew nothing except the realities of war. This finds its fullest expression in the character of T. who is completely nihilistic and detached from emotion. Greene seems to be painting a grim picture of the effects of war on the human nature and how it can divorce us from our moral and...
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