in a new era of equality in which the common man is king. T. wants to destroy the house, representing as it does an enervated social system in which his family once thrived. He and the other boys in the gang will act as worms, eating away at society from within. They are the products of this almost apocalyptic landscape; society has produced its own gravediggers, its own destroyers.

The story, The Destructors is actually an allegory for the decline of the post independent Sri Lankan state so the story is full of symbolism. The house actually allegorically represents or is the symbol for the Sri Lankan state. Greene uses personification to make the house a character in the story (for example upon Blackie's approach on destruction day, the house is said to look as if it had slept). In turn then the surrounding area represents or symbolizes the area around Sri Lanka, which was destroyed by blitzes (aerial bomb attacks). The misery and shadows symbolize the mood of the state and the people. War and political strife are dark times in states and countries and misery and shadows do well to represent those feelings. T. describing the boys as being worms symbolizes the destruction from the inside out. He doesn't want to damage the house, he wants to destroy it, to make it something other than a house because after-all destruction is really just creation in disguise, which was the point of bringing Sri Lanka down, from the inside out, to make it something entirely different than it was before.

I would say that some of the examples of imagery used throughout the story is reflected in the employment of destruction and desolation.  Greene uses these images to reflect a hollowed out state of being that envelops the characters.  The bombed out parking lot that serves as the gang's meeting ground is one such image.  There is nothing constructive in this setting.  Everything has been destroyed.  This image helps to bring out how the gang, in general, represents broken youth, kids who really have little concept of that which is constructive living in a world of destruction.  The idea of tearing down Mr. Thomas' home is another such image.  Greene describes how the boys tear it down from the inside out, leaving nothing left.  Even T.'s desire to destroy it to absolute rubble is an image of how destruction is around these kids so much that it infiltrates the way in which they perceive the world.  There is nothing in terms of construction in this condition.  There is only destruction.  The conclusion of the story is another such image in which the lorry driver can only laugh at the emptiness that is around him.  The condition of absolute emptiness enveloping him is one in which there is nothing left.  There is "nothing personal" because those bonds and those conditions have been destroyed.  It is this vision of emptiness in which Greene uses imagery to convey a sense of hollowness and the void that exists in England and with the people who inhabit it.