The Destructors

by Graham Greene

What are the qualities of a wellchosen quotation?

A good quotation should:
Prove the point being made
Not be too long

How can this quotation be edited to capture

his character in the shortest space?

Mike at the age of nine was surprised

by everything. If you dont shut your
mouth, somebody once said to him,
youll get a frog down it. After that
Mike kept his teeth tightly clamped
except when the surprise was too
great.
(P160)

Use of first name only

suggests young, harmless
boy: compare to names of
other characters, e.g. T
or Blackie

His youth is emphasised

Mike at the age of nine

was surprised by
everything.
Suggests he is
inexperienced and
innocent: everything is
new and exciting to him

What are 3 ways to introduce a

quotation?
1. Use an introductory phrase plus
the quotation
2. Make your point + a colon + the
quotation
3. Make your point with quoted
material integrated

Essay Question
Explore how Graham Greene presents
the shifting power within the group as
leadership passes from Blackie to T.

Overview
Set after WW2 in urban wasteland
London
Focus = Group of children and their
response to authority, a lack of
direction in their lives and the sense
of a new world order developing

Plot Summary
The story is in 4 sections planning,
action day 1, action day 2 and the
outcome.
Write ONE sentence to
summarise each section

Analysis (read hand-out for

homework)
The war has left destruction
everywhere around them, and they
are attempting to fit into the new
world by becoming destroyers
themselves
T. is using the boys to repeat, in the
physical world, the psychological
damage that has been done to him
and his family by the war

Analysis (read hand-out for

homework)
They have set up the truck driver to do the
actual damage, just as anonymous and
impersonal forces had set up common people
to perform destructive acts upon one another
during the war
The drivers laughter at the destruction of the
house is a survival technique; what else can he
do? He has been the agent of the house's fall,
but he was not in control. He suggests that an
element of absurdity has entered human life in
the post-war world.

Characters Create a poster for

your character
Must include: quotations,
descriptions, pictures, colour
1.Find other
quotations
Can include:
characters
thoughts
2.Scribe
Mike = Rodion, Lena
3.Artist
and Nikita
/
T. = Victor, Sasha
Presenter
and Nick
Blackie = Zeyn, Izabella and
Evangelia
Mr. Thomas = Julia, Ammad and
Faith

Themes
Innocence
Power
Destruction and creation

Language

Similes
Similes are used as atmospheric descriptors like
a jagged tooth, like a tomb in a neglected
graveyard.
Slow warm drops that had begun to fall and the
rumble of thunder in the estuary like the first guns
of the old blitz. This implies that what theyve
done to the house was equivalent to the blitz. The
feeling of what it was like to be felt at the blitz has
come back to them. They feel good about it
because what they amount of things they have
destroyed was how much damage the blitz caused.
They have gotten their revenge back successfully.

Personification
House is occasionally personified:
The house slept, the crippled
house.

Imagery
Literally leant, for it had suffered
from the blast of the bomb and the
side walls were supported on wooden
struts. As this story is set in post
World War Two, following the Blitz in
London, the images that are left for
the reader are a city left in shambles,
broken debris and a gloomy
atmosphere.

Imagery
The house that the gang wrecks is a symbol of a
beacon of hope during dark times. This was the
one of the only houses that was intact after the
Blitz during World War Two. The gang decides to
destroy the house for revenge as perhaps he does
not have any positive motivations in his own life
and he wishes the same for everybody else.
The Destructors represents the house that they
wreck. Everything else but Old Miserys house has
fallen and is destroyed. At the end of the short
story, nothing is left.

Narrative
Narrative is 3rd person and uncomplicated.
At times reflects view of characters: 164.7, There
was no sign of anyone
Blackies view is being told.
The sentences are short as he looks around nervously.
Uses senses to develop detail hearing is acute
throughout the story.
Dialogue injects pace into the story and allows
characters to develop the calm T., the more
aggressive Summers, the driver at the end of the
story.

Homework
Summary as a set of instructions =
Due Monday
Read analysis
Read language