Abstract
This essay offers a Marxist perspective of Graham Greene’s short story “The Destructors,” where the protagonist Trevor is portrayed as the Marxist intellectual who endeavors to overthrow the old regime and enforce a new one. Being the child of an architect, he uses his creative knowledge to destroy the house that symbolizes old values and regime, and his creativity is so well though through that is equals the architect’s efforts at creating this beautiful house. Green reveals only a limited omniscient narrator voice, which urges the reader not to merely blindly follow the information given about the characters and their deeds, but to make their own conclusions as to their reasons.
Keywords: Greene, Marxist, destruction, creation, gang
The Marxist analysis of Graham Greene’s short story “The Destructors” offers a protagonist whose rebellious angst refuses the empty promises of the past and the older generations, and instead urges for a new world order. Greene utilizes the imagery of the house and its slow deconstruction not from outside in, but rather from inside out, in an effort to challenge and ultimately destroy the prevailing social order, which in this case is an internally beautiful remnant of the past, among all the rubble of the current post-war era.
Mr. Thomas’ house is a work of a renowned English architect and it represents all that boys such as members of the “Wormsley Common Gang” can only dream of. The new member of the gang, Trevor or his more authoritative moniker T., provides the essence of the Marxist analysis of the story, with his dramatic change in the course of the gang’s dealings and his rise to power by subtly overturning the previous leader Blackie. He will prove to be a much more effective leader, emphasizing the fact that the old ways are all too ineffectual: “He had at once the impression of organization, very different from the old happy-go-lucky ways under [Blackie’s] leadership” (Greene). With this subtle, yet determinate takeover, the whole balance of power commences to shift. Now, the boys are not only responsible for the deeds of their gang, but have moved onto the surrounding area as well, their actions give out the feeling of executive power being enforced upon the whole community. By deciding the fate of Mr. Thomas’ house and locking him in the outhouse during the whole process, they have become the authoritative figures in the community and are demanding to be obeyed and respected. For instance, the boys think about their ranking among other gangs whose members are much older, and how they will all respect them. This change is a prophecy of a new social order, but not necessarily a positive one.
In addition, Trevor was once a member of the class that he now wishes to overthrow. His father, who was an architect and is now merely a clerk, has recently lost his upper social ranking, while his mother still retains the aura of snobbery and the feeling of class superiority. Thus, Trevor’s endeavor to destroy the house starting from the inside and leaving the walls for last, stems from his personal dissatisfaction of the fact that he is now refused all that he was not before. The gang’s struggle is a struggle of the dispossessed in a world where property equals power, and by destroying the property eye sore, the standing gem among the dirt and rubble, the boys endeavor to erase the line between those who have property and those who do not.
Greene’s point of view is limited omniscient, in the sense that he possesses enough knowledge of the gang’s workings and how it ends, but he has little knowledge over what motivates them, over their workings of the mind, and this is where he expects the readers to form their own conclusions and opinions. Trevor certainly possesses enough traits to be considered a Marxist intellectual, who perceive themselves as autonomous from the ruling class and shape their ideology and leader potential only through their struggle against the ruling class. In this sense, while his compatriots in crime believe that destroying this house feels like work, to Trevor it is much more. He is devoted to the minutest of details to the perfection of destruction, and is as skillful in demolition as the architect was in creation. Despite the fact that he says he does not hate the man, his reasons can still be adjoined to his father’s social demise. This is why he continually uses the word beautiful for Mr. Thomas’ house, because he knows what a beautifully constructed house looks like. He is not interested in the lowly exploitation of the house, such looting. He refuses to take the money he finds, and instead burns it in a celebratory feat. All he is interested in is taking down the structure itself, until nothing is left of it, not even a remnant of this house that stood like a man in a top hat among peasants.
“The Destructors” is a story of the loss of traditional values, of struggling to suffocate them, without having new, positive values. The morality of the characters is dubious, because being human, they possess both good and bad within them, and being teenagers may not always be privileged to make the right choice. Still, the protagonist chooses to “fight the power” the only way he can: by reversing the creativity of his intellect and using it for destruction of the old regime remnant.e is
