ATTENTION! ATTENTION!
January 19, 2008January 19, 2008
ATTENTION!
ATTENTION!
ATTENTION!
Dear Classmates:
As Ms. Naziripur has announced, The seminar’s pamphlet is one of the important sources of the exam.
Please study it!
January 19, 2008
Attention Attention
We hold a meeting to share our ideas about “The Destructors”
Date:Monday,1386/11/01 Time:14:30
Place: our faculty
The next meeting to discuss about “That Evening Sun” & “the Child By Tiger” will be held on:
Date:Saturday,1386/11/06 time:14:30
Place:our faculty
THE CHILD BY TIGER
January 15, 2008by Thomas Wolfe
The story, “The Child By Tiger” written by Thomas Wolfe, is primarily interpretive literature, not escape literature. “Escape literature” is written purely for pleasure, while “interpretive literature” is written for pleasure and to help us understand the world around us. Interpretive literature educates, asks questions about life and presents some aspects of life that we may not want to face. “The Child by Tiger” is interpretive literature because of the way the author presents the story, the way it ends, the way it educates us, and especially how it helps us understand man’s darker nature. This work is interpretive rather than escape literature because of the way the author presents the story. Thomas Wolfe has the protagonist looking back on the events that occurred twenty-five years earlier. Even though he has had a very long time to reflect on them, he is looking back in the hope that he can make some sense out of it all. The author uses this situation to his advantage. On the second page of the story where the author writes, “He had, he said, only recently received his discharge from the Army”, shows that the protagonist is second guessing what Dick Prosser had said. This reflective outlook is a good position from which to teach the audience. The reader learns about death the same way as the protagonist. This is an ideal way to catch the attention of the audience and to educate them at the same time as the protagonist, which is a characteristic of interpretive literature. Another reason this story is interpretive is the way it ends. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” which is an example of escape literature, the reader is left with a playful ending and has the opportunity to decide if Rainsford becomes the hunter or if he just leaves. No such ending is left in “The Child by Tiger.” In addition, the story does not end with the death of Dick Prosser. The author wants to impart a sense of the after-shock on the reader and introduces characters who brag about being part of the hunt, and the fact that Prosser underlined a particular portion of the Bible indicated that the act was premeditated and that Prosser knew that he would soon be “walking through the valley of death”. This real-life facet is a trait of interpretive literature. Since most escape literature has a happy ending and this does not, is additional proof that this is not escape literature. Most importantly the story is interpretive because the author is trying to help us understand man’s darker side. From time to time we read about someone “flipping out” and killing a bunch of people. It happened recently in Dunblane, Scotland, and in Oklahoma City. When we ask ourselves why something like this happened, we are unable to answer. In our story, a young man of 30 goes insane and kills about 10 people. The author does not try to justify the act. What he does do is try to shed a little light on one of these situations. This illumination is the educative aspect of interpretive literature. Another example of the educative aspect of interpretive literature is shown when the boys find the gun. Dick Prosser makes a secret pact with them. He promises to take them out to shoot it if they don’t tell anyone about it. The boys agree and in so doing they form a bond with Prosser. This act is a lesson about man’s “darker” side and how it allows him to use his friendship to keep from getting caught. This teaching process is a trait of interpretive literature. The next example of man’s darker side is the end of Dick Prosser’s life. After Dick had expended all of his ammo, he threw away his gun, sat down and removed his shoes. At this point there was no reason to kill him. The townspeople could have captured him and brought him into town. Instead, they shot him and even after he was dead, continued to shoot him; they shot him 300 times. This is morbid but it shows man’s darker side. Laurence Perrine, in Story and Structure, states that interpretive literature “helps us understand our troubles.” In “The Child by Tiger” we are trying to understand the troubles of mankind. “The Child by Tiger” by Thomas Wolfe, is interpretive literature because of the way it is presented, the way it ends, and what it teaches about man’s darker side.
A Synopsis of Lasting Themes Found in “The Child by Tiger”
In Thomas Wolfe’s carefully constructed short story, “The Child by Tiger,” excerpts from William Blake’s poem “Tiger” and the King James Bible enrich the central themes of the plot. Although “The Child by Tiger” is very cryptic in revealing its purpose, several important concepts may be inspected to aid the reader in discovering Wolfe’s meaning. The stirring first stanza of “Tiger,” chosen by Wolfe to precede his story, braces the reader for the darker imagery to follow. The vivid words of Blake’s poem are put to work as underlying themes in “The Child by Tiger,” including images of darkness, shadows, fear, and the fire-like burn of the tiger’s eye that haunts the rest of the plot. It is in this imagery that perhaps Wolfe’s primary theme is founded: what is human nature and what are its capabilities for both good and evil? The character Dick Prosser is upon introduction a deeply religious, gentle, and multi-talented man. Almost immediately in the story, Wolfe begins a consistent reference to Dick as very cat-like in nature, drawing on his cunning prowess, speed, and agility. It can thus be gathered that the tiger illustrated in Blake’s poem is symbolic of Dick. . . .
He met death with no fear, showing the same indifference to his own demise as when he calming killed so many of the townspeople. Did Wolfe purposely include this excerpt to chart Dick’s transformation, or was it rather a satire on the hypocrisy possessed by man? Following the passage of the Bible very closely, Dick emerges from the dark forest much like the dark tiger in Blake’s poem, and makes his way across the pasture farmland and stops before the river to face death. ” Thomas Wolfe certainly made a point of crafting for his short story a purpose that could be concealed behind many symbols and cryptic themes. Comparing basic human nature to that of an animal, it is much easier to relate to Dick feeling trapped. Upon the narrator’s discovery of the open Bible passage after Dick’s violent death, his massacre no longer seems unprovoked or spontaneous. Either way, the excerpt from Exodus eliminates all possibility that Dick simply began his spree because he was a “crazy nigger. Thus develops the author’s lasting theme. Dick Prosser was alive in both the poem and the psalm, and as Wolfe forged his character into shadowy and grizzled detail, it can be inferred that perhaps we, or a hidden part within us, also dwell in such darkness. Night, darkness, and shadows emerge as crucial themes, once again drawing their power from the introductory stanza from “Tiger. His use of William Blake’s “Tiger” and the psalm from the Bible were chosen for their symbolic imagery and lasting impression upon the reader. Comparing Dick to a shadow or something “moving in the night,” both disturbs the reader and causes one to question first impressions. Symbols from the excerpt taken out of Exodus are again very cryptic. The events that follow in the narration of Dick’s final days is so sudden, and ends so abruptly that Wolfe’s purpose is lost somewhere between South Dean Street and the undertaking parlor. The narrator paints an illustrious image of Dick Prosser in the early stages of the story, creating an instant admiration for what the reader first believes to be the protagonist; however, it is soon noted that Dick “went too softly, at too swift a pace”, marring the seemingly flawless character and casting a shadow of doubt over the almost-hero.
Common topics in this essay:
Dick Prosser, Child Tiger, Comparing Dick, Referring Tiger, Dick Prossers, Thomas Wolfe, Blakes Tiger, Dean Street, James Bible, Thomas Wolfes, dick prosser, human nature, blakes poem, child tiger, short story, stanza tiger, excerpt exodus, darkness shadows, william blakes, The Force of Evil
“And something had come to life…It was a kind of shadow,
a poisonous blackness filled with bewildered loathing.
…something hateful and unspeakable
in the souls of men.”
An apparent introduction is made in the three works, The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, The Child by Tiger by Thomas Wolfe, and The Destructors by Graham Greene; the unwelcome but necessary introduction to the sinful nature of mankind, to evil without limits, and without cause. When confronted with the presence of evil around them, the characters react in very different ways. A few triumph, one just stands in awe.
In The Most Dangerous Game Mr. Rainsford, at first, tries to shrug off a fellow sailor’s belief of a nearby ‘dark’ island by saying “Pure imagination . . . One superstitious sailor can taint the whole ship’s company with his fear.” The sailor replies with haunting faith, “Sometimes I think evil is a tangible thing – with wavelengths, just as sound and light have. An evil place can, so to speak, broadcast vibrations of evil.” When Rainsford comes to believe the crucial meaning of his friends’ words, it is too late; he is already in the midst of the very place that was spoken of.
Appalled at first, by faced with no other choice than to confront the very source of evil, General Zaroff, face to face, Rainsford realizes the danger of his position and takes what he is dealt right in stride. He was now the wanted prey of the most dangerous of hunters. Difference in Character in Child by Tiger and Most Dangerous Game
In Thomas Wolfe’s “The Child by Tiger,” the character Dick Prosser is clearly more credible than General Zaroff in Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game.” This plausibility is due to each character’s lifestyle, murder motives, and personal morals. The difference in the characters is very dramatic.
Foremost, how and where one lives tell much about a person. General Zaroff appears to be living in an almost make-believe world. He has bought an island and made his home there. When Rainsford, another character in the short story, reaches the island, he begins looking for lights. Connell describes, “He came upon them as he turned a crook in the coast line, and his first thought was that he had come upon a village, for there were many lights” (11). Today, it would be ludicrous for a man to own an island all by himself. Conversely, Dick Prosser lives more realistically. He lives in a basement room of a home belonging to a white The Child’s Hidden Tiger
In the short story The Child by Tiger, Thomas Wolfe portrays mans dark side through the unexpected madness of the seemingly good-natured Dick Prosser and the actions taken by the town people. This story is set in an era when people believed race determined the moral character of a person. Many viewed blacks as social outcast and hence the cause of most crimes. This is true to the extent that African Americans were committing a large number of petty crimes, but were they really the cause. Many factors play into determining a cause, and in this case it is quite evident that the social conditions in which African Americans were forced to live in contributed to there social behavior. However, can these pressures push a man to mental madness and drive him towards mass murder? It is not just to say that he is without fault, but it is true to say that, the coldness of one man will decrease the warmth of another. The story gives us a glimpse of Dick’s life a short period before the climax. We are left to probe clues and use our imagination and intuition to come to a personal conclusion of why Dick committed mass murder.
The time in which the story takes place was a period of severe racial discrimination especially toward Blacks. The most prevalent attitude toward African Americans was that they were somehow inferior to the whites. This is evident by the referral of Dick as the “Shepperton’s Negro man” (Wolfe 24). “Mr. Shepperton himself
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
This is the first stanza of William Blake’s famous poem, “The Tyger” which is also featured as the opening paragraph in “The Child by Tiger”, a short story by Thomas Wolfe. In the narrative, a seemingly kind, gentle, and religious African American male named Dick Prosser goes on a vicious rampage after drinking excessively and getting in a fight with his love interest’s husband (Wolfe 735). At the end of the story, a large mob made up of vengeful White people seeking justice against the “crazed Negro” tracks him down to a riverbank, where Dick awaits them with his shoes at his side and a firearm squeezed dry of ammunition (739). His stalkers gun him down, hang his lifeless body from a tree, pump him full of 300 bullets, and take his mutilated corpse back to down where he is hung in an undertaker’s display window for all to see and enjoy (739). What one may not realize while begin to read this story, is that the excerpt from the Blake poem that precedes th… The opening stanzas from William Blake’s poem “The Tiger” in “The Child By Tiger” by Thomas Wolfe help accentuate the theme of the story. They further relate to the passage in which Dick Prosser’s bible was left open to. The stanzas incorporated in the story reveal that with every good is evil.
“The Child By Tiger” inlays a sense of good with evil tailing it as its shadow. In the beginning, Blake’s stanza questions “…who could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Dick Prosser appears to be kind and moral, but later reveals his vengeful side as he chaotically kills people. His conflicts with society inspire the evil to spring forward and divulge himself. The reference to “tiger!” in Blake’s stanza indirectly relates to the fact that Prosser is referred to as a cat through Wolfe’s story. Prosser’s evil self is illustrated as stealthily and smartly stalking his prey; pretending to be the same amongst the others. This evil, Prosser himself, exhibits tendencies of moral goodness as he tries to suppress his situational conflict. Evil stalks a prey smartly; it takes notice of every slight move, and every attempt to through it off fails because it always lands back on its feet.
Prosser was a very religious man; he had a bible that he constantly read and was worn from use. The last passage marked as read insinuates that Prosser’s death was destined. He was made to “lie down” in wait, and see what he could spread his “dread grasp” on. His role was to act as everyone else because his evil self was stalking the others. Prosser was the “deadly terrors” everyone ran from, for he was on “the path of righteousness for his name’s sake.” He was meant for the town to see the evil that it can create. All Prosser was, was a marionette controlled by the citizens.
Blake’s poem relates to the standard of evil that the world creates. Prosser is found out to be bound toward evil as the tiger in the eye of god. What ultimately comes from this is that evil is innate it anyone, it is just that the good is harbored to be shown as best as it can. In the fictional short story “The Child by Tiger” no event occurs with out purpose. Authors of fictional short stories have to produce a well-read piece without any excess information or events. Thomas Wolfe was no exception to this rule. He demonstrated a serious fictional short story without any overflow of information or detail. An act of violence in a story provides suspense, drama, mystery, and other specific advantages. Wolfe also displays the result of violent acts, especially in small towns. In “The Child by Tiger” Dick’s violent act seems both shocking and surprising, but offers and excellent gateway to wrap up the end of a story.
The violent act of Dick Prosser, the Shepperton’s servant presents the story with a great crescendo of conflict and suspense. This kind, gentle, respectful man changed suddenly into a cold-blooded killer. The purpose of this violence in the story was to show the reader the need for Dick to be free. Literally, he was free, but because of his position as the Shepperton’s “Negro man” he was not. He even went as far as to kill people just so he could live his own life.
Without the author’s use of violence Dick’s point would not be made as boldly. If he had talked to Mr. Shepperton about his desire to live his own life, it would not have made such an impression on the readers as it did when he became violent. Also, if Dick did in fact speak to Mr. Shepperton about his desire to live his own life and if it was granted to him the story would h… [to view the full essay now, purchase below]
A CHILD’S VIEW
In Thomas Wolfe’s The Child by Tiger (reprinted in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 9th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2006] Page 625). The story as told through the eyes of a child will show many different ways to view Dick Prosser, the main character, as a man. The child Spangler shows how the children feel about Prosser, how he resembles a cat and how he turns from a good person to bad.
Prosser is a big man who is admired by the children. As a black man, he is a servant of one of the children but is loved by all the children. He is an excellent shot and shows the children his great marksmanship with a small rifle of one of the children. The children make Prosser sound great because they build him up by how gentle he is with them. The children think of Dick as quoted in the story, ” There was nothing he did not know.” (Page 627) Teaching them to play football, to make a fire, and even how to box makes him to them seem larger than life. It is easy to like Prosser because of the time he spends with chil…
THE DESTRUCTORS
January 15, 2008Plot Summary
“The Destructors” is about a group of teenage boys who call themselves the Wormsley Common gang, after the area where they live. They meet every day in a parking lot near a part of town that was bombed during World War II. Almost everything in this area is destroyed although one house stands with minimal damage. This house is owned by Mr. Thomas (whom the boys call Old Misery), an old man who lives alone. One day, the gang’s leader, Blackie, suggests that they spend the day sneaking free bus rides. T. (whose full name is Trevor) has another idea. He has been inside Mr. Thomas’s house and suggests that the boys take advantage of the old man’s upcoming two-day absence to demolish the house from the inside. T. becomes the gang’s new leader. When the boys meet at the appointed time the next morning, T. has already organized his directions for the boys to demolish the house. By the end of the day, the house is in shambles: the floors are torn up, the fixtures are smashed, the electrical cords are all cut, and doors are destroyed. After everyone but Blackie has left, T. shows him “something special,” Mr. Thomas’s savings of seventy one-pound notes. T. explains that he and Blackie will burn the notes one at a time to celebrate. After they are finished, they go home. The next day, the boys meet again at the house to complete the destruction. They take out the staircase, demolish the inner layers of wall, knock down the floors (it is a multi-story house), and flood what is left. Before they are finished, one of the boys runs in and announces that Mr. Thomas is on his way home. Mr. Thomas was not expected until the next morning, so T. locks him in the outhouse until morning. Not wanting to physically hurt the old man, the boys give him a blanket and food. The next morning, a driver starts up his truck, and as he pulls out of the parking lot adjacent to the house, he hears crashing. At first he is confused, but then he realizes that his truck was tied to a support beam of the gutted house, bringing it down. The driver lets Mr. Thomas out of the outhouse, and although the old man is devastated, the driver cannot stop laughing. He explains that it is not personal, but he thinks it is funny.
Characters
Blackie
Before T. becomes the leader of the Wormsley Common gang, Blackie is its head. He is described as a just leader who is not jealous and wants to keep the group intact. He also distrusts anything having to do with the upper class. As the gang’s leader, Blackie suggests such activities as seeing how many free bus rides they can sneak and breaking into Old Misery’s house without stealing anything. When the gang sides with T. instead of Blackie, Blackie initially feels betrayed and privately sulks. He then decides that if the gang is going to succeed in the feat of destroying the house, he wants to be a part of it for the fame. Once he rejoins the group, he is fully committed to T.’s leadership and to contributing to the destruction of the house. In fact, when the gang’s confidence in T.’s leadership falters, Blackie pulls the group back together. This demonstrates that the group as a whole is more important to him than the personal glory of being the leader.
Driver
At the end of the story, an unsuspecting driver finally brings down the house. The driver’s truck is tied to the gutted house so that when he pulls out of the adjacent parking lot, the entire house crumbles. At first, the driver is astonished and confused, but once he realizes what has happened, he responds with a fit of laughter. Even when Mr. Thomas faces him and asks him how he can laugh, the driver is unable to control himself.
Joe
Joe is a member of the Wormsley Common gang. He is simply described as a “fat boy,” and he is the first to vote in favor of T.’s plan to destroy the house.
Mike
A member of the Wormsley Common gang, Mike is the only one who is surprised when T. becomes the leader. Mike has always been easily surprised and gullible; when he was nine, he believed someone who told him that if he did not keep his mouth shut, he would get a frog in it.
Summers
Summers is the only member of the gang who is called by his last name. He is a thin boy who is a follower. When, on the second day, he complains that the destruction of the house is too much like work, he is easily talked into staying and helping.
T.
Trevor, who goes by T., is the new leader of the Wormsley Common gang. He is fifteen years old and has gray eyes. He is a member of the gang all summer before taking leadership in August, when he suggests a dramatic change in the gang’s activities. His father, an architect, has recently lost social ranking, and his mother has an air of snobbery about her. If T. had seemed like an easy target to the boys, they would have teased him for these things in the beginning. T. initially says very little when the gang meets, but as he positions himself to take leadership, he talks more. He intrigues the gang with his plan to pull down Mr. Thomas’ house, a feat unparalleled in the gang’s history. The unprecedented plan, coupled with the air of intrigue surrounding T., makes the boys in the gang eager to accept his plan. Mr. Thomas Mr. Thomas, who is called Old Misery by the boys in the gang, is an old man who lives in one of the last standing houses in its neighborhood. He was once a builder and decorator but now lives alone, emerging once every week to buy groceries. While he expects his property to be respected by the boys, he is not so disagreeable that he refuses to allow the boys on his land or to use his outdoor bathroom.
Mr. Thomas
is naïve about the ways of the boys. He never expects that they will regard his offer of chocolates with suspicion, and he certainly never imagines that when he agrees to show T. around his house, T. will betray him. Mr. Thomas believes that the old ways, in which youth respected their elders, are still alive. By the end of the story, however, he realizes that he was terribly misguided. Trevor: See T.
Media Adaptations
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“The Destructors,” along with two of Greene’s other short stories (“The Basement Room” and “Under the Garden”), was adapted as a television series in England in 1975 by Thames Television. The series included thirteen episodes.
Themes
Innocence
The boys in “The Destructors” are in their teens, which is the age at which childish innocence is gradually left behind in favor of worldliness and sophistication. For the boys in the story, however, their innocence is already gone, replaced by cynicism, selfishness, and rebelliousness. When Mr. Thomas arrives home early, T. is surprised because the old man had told him he would be gone longer. Greene writes, “He protested with the fury of the child he had never been.” Not only have these boys grown up during the war years, they live in an environment that serves as a constant reminder of that harrowing experience. They meet in a parking lot near an area that was destroyed by bombs during the war, and they are seemingly unaffected by it because it is such a normal part of their life. In reality, the war years have claimed their youthful innocence, leaving them disillusioned and determined to create their own world order, but all they really know is destruction. Part of innocence is surrender to the imagination. In “The Destructors,” however, imagination takes an ugly turn. T. uses his imagination to devise the plan to destroy Mr. Thomas’s house. Greene writes that the boys “worked with the seriousness of creators – and destruction after all is a form of creation. A kind of imagination had seen this house as it had now become.” The imagination used to plot the demise of the house is the opposite of the imagination used to create it. In innocence, a person’s imagination is applied to think of a better world, but the boys have lost their innocence. They can only imagine a worse world.
Power
“The Destructors” is a study of shifting power. Blackie initially holds the power of leadership in the gang, and he is a basically good leader. Although he encourages mischief, it is the kind that does not hurt anyone. In his hands, power is the ability to lead others. When T. takes over leadership, however, the gang changes dramatically. He gets the members to participate in a cruel plan to destroy an innocent man’s home, a home that is a treasured piece of England’s past. In T.’s hands, power is the ability to destroy. His brand of leadership is different; when Blackie arrives on the first morning of the destruction (the day after T. assumes leadership), “He had at once the impression of organization, very different from the old happy-go-lucky ways under his leadership.” When Summers arrives on the second morning, voicing his preference to do something more fun that day, T. will not hear of it. T. knows he is more powerful than Summers is, so he reminds him that the job is not done and that Summers himself voted in favor of the project. He succeeds in pressuring the boy to stay and help finish the destruction. In the changing social structure of this small community, the balance of power is shifting. The boys forcibly take power in the community, and it is executable power. They have the ability to make changes in people’s lives and to intimidate others. Mr. Thomas, on the other hand, thinks he has power that he no longer possesses. He believes that he has authority based on the social order of the past, in which he, as an elder in the community, would be respected and obeyed. The shift in power seen in “The Destructors” signals the changing social order and does not bode well for the future.
Topics for Further Study
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Compare the Wormsley Common gang with modern American gangs. Consider factors like membership, recruitment, enemies, activities, and motivations. What similarities did you find? Present your findings in a collage made up of drawings, photos, maps, headlines, text, and anything else that is appropriate.
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Choose a European country (not England) and research what its young people were like after World War II. Prepare a lecture to deliver to a group of high school freshmen in which you present your findings and encourage the students to imagine how they would react in similar circumstances.
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At the end of World War II, the Allied Powers emerged victorious. The Allies included twenty-eight countries, but the central nations were Great Britain, the United States, France, and Russia. Explore art (paintings, sculptures, photography, etc.) created during this period in these nations to see what themes, feelings, and moods are expressed. Do you find that the art celebrates the Allied victory or that it reflects the devastation of war? Compile reproductions of the works you find most compelling and make an exhibit demonstrating how art reflects the experiences of nations.
Style
Paradox
Greene demonstrates the instability of postwar England in his presentation of opposing forces throughout’ “The Destructors.” The tension created by these forces reflects a society that has survived trauma but is deeply changed by it. Social dynamics are undergoing change, and the youth no longer feel connected to the past, as previous generations did. Greene’s writing often incorporates paradoxes, and in this story, paradoxes are used to communicate the atmosphere of the community in which the Wormsley Common gang functions. Greene’s use of paradox in the story is evident in T.’s attitudes toward Mr. Thomas. On the one hand, he sets about destroying his house, treating him disrespectfully, and regarding him with suspicion. At the same time, however, T. does not hate him. His intention to destroy Mr. Thomas’s life is not personal but is rooted in his desire to get rid of the last vestige of traditional beauty in the war-torn landscape. Although his destructive behavior is not personal, the consequences are deeply personal for the old man, but T. is unable to consider such consequences. A related paradox in the story is when T. takes Mr. Thomas’s seventy one-pound notes, but not for personal gain. Instead, he takes them only to burn them. In other words, T. takes items that are inherently valuable, but he has no interest in making use of that value. T.’s attitude toward Mr. Thomas’s house is paradoxical, too. He knows the house is beautiful, but his feelings about beauty, especially as they relate to social classes (the house is an emblem of the upper class) makes it easy for him to destroy it anyway. Another example of paradox is in the truck driver who ultimately brings the house to its final destruction. While the reader expects this man to react with feelings of guilt or horror, he laughs. He has no part in planning the destruction, nor does he have any feelings toward the old man or what he represents; yet, his reaction is not what is expected. He lacks sympathy or compassion and bursts into uncontrolled laughter, saying, “You got to admit it’s funny.”
Allegory
Beneath the surface of “The Destructors” are allegorical elements that enable Greene to comment about postwar England. The various characters in the story represent the older generation and the traditions of the past and the younger generation and its rejection of the empty promises and values of the past. Mr. Thomas stands for the old ways and the past belief in the authority of elders. He initially expects to be able to tell the boys what to do and what not to do simply because he is older than they are. In the determination to destroy Mr. Thomas’s house, the work of a respected English architect, Greene demonstrates that the longstanding class struggle, as represented by property, is intensified. The lower class, represented by the gang, is not satisfied to watch the upper class enjoy valuable property; instead, they succeed in destroying it and somehow achieve a closer balance between the haves and the have-nots. The story is also an allegory about power. T. joins the group and soon takes the power away from Blackie. Once he has secured the power in the group, he immediately initiates changes by raising the stakes of what kind of mischief they will seek. T. becomes a sort of dictator in the group, giving orders and making unilateral decisions. In the wake of World War II, these are disturbing images of a new generation of power-hungry young people emerging from the wartime experience. Readers may interpret this as a message about the price of war or as a warning of what may come if something is not done to reverse current trends.
Historical Context
Modernist Period in English Literature The modernist period in English literature began in 1914 with the onset of World War I and extended through 1965. It is a literary period that reflects the nation’s wartime experiences (World War I and World War II), the emerging British talent of the 1920s, and the economic depression of the 1930s. Toward the end of the period, literature and art demonstrate the nation’s growing uncertainty, which became especially pronounced after World War II; this uncertainty would give way to hostility and protest in the postmodernist period. During the early years of the modernist period, the foremost fiction writers were E. M. Forster, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, and Somerset Maugham. One of the major accomplishments of this period was the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, a work that continues to be respected as a masterpiece of twentieth-century literature. In the 1920s and 1930s, the novels of D. H. Lawrence and Evelyn Waugh were harshly critical of modern society, expressing an attitude shared by many English men and women of the day. In the 1930s and 1940s, novelists such as Greene wrote traditional fiction that was well-crafted enough both to stand up to innovative fiction of the day and to gain a wide and loyal audience. Many writers of this period (Greene included) were born at the turn of the century, near the end of the Victorian Age. These writers were reared in an environment of romanticism, which often meant leading a relatively sheltered childhood that left them ill-prepared for the realities of adult life. This background, combined with events of the first half of the twentieth century, led writers such as Greene to question the values of their past and to reevaluate the world in which they lived as adults. This re-evaluation is seen in Greene’s fiction as he explores morality and creates characters who possess the capacity for both good and evil.
Teddy Boys
During the 1950s in England, the reality of organized groups of teenagers set on being disruptive and disrespectful caused public concern. Known as teddy boys, these groups of boys banded together in the name of delinquency and destruction. In many ways, they were the precursors to the modern-day gangs. These groups of boys are regarded as products of the postwar society in which they lived, having been exposed to violence and instability as children. The teddy boys got their name from their choice of attire; although they were generally working-class boys, they chose to wear Edwardian-style suits traditionally worn by young upper-class men. This suit, commonly known as teddy style, combined with the delinquent behavior of its wearers, caught the attention of the press. The teddy boys were not just creative in their delinquent behavior; they also made irreverent changes to their suits, such as adding bolo ties, that they had seen in movie westerns.
Compare & Contrast
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1950s: Since its election victories of 1945, the Labour Party is working on bringing certain industries under government control. Based on socialist principles, the Labour Party’s objectives are to distribute resources evenly among English citizens and to blur the lines of social class. Its influence is on the decline, however, since the Conservative Party reduced the Labour Party’s majority in parliament in the 1950 elections.
Today: After two Conservative prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and John Majors, Labour Party leader Tony Blair is now England’s prime minister. English voters seem to vote in cycles, much as American voters tend to alternate over time between Democratic and Republican leadership. -
1950s: The emergence of rock and roll music in the United States leads to the style’s popularity around the world. Teenagers are drawn to its energy and spirit of rebellion. Having endured the war, many teenagers in England are uncertain and cynical, and rock and roll music appeals to their spirit of defiance and to their drive to create a new identity.
Today: Rock and roll music has evolved into a variety of types, including pop, alternative rock, punk rock, heavy metal, and funk. England’s contributions to rock and its descendants are considerable. Besides the many contemporary English bands enjoying worldwide success (including Radiohead, Oasis, Dead Can Dance, and Stereophonies), formative bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones continue to influence musicians today. These two British groups consistently top every poll, list, or survey of the best bands and albums of all time.
Critical Overview
Greene is considered one of the most important writers of his generation although most of the criticism of his work focuses on his novels. Still, there are similarities between his novels and his short stories, such as his sympathetic portrayal of flawed characters, the degradation of the individual in the modern world, the need for moral compromise in certain situations, and the harsh realities of violence and cruelty. Greene’s writing style is also consistent among his novels and shorter works. Renowned English writer Evelyn Waugh describes Greene’s writing style in Commonweal as “not a specifically literary style at all. The words are functional, devoid of sensuous attraction, of ancestry, and of independent life.” Perhaps this is why Richard Jones of Virginia Quarterly Review concluded that the key to Greene’s popularity is “probably his readability,” which attends to “the main business of holding the reader’s attention.” Waugh likens Greene’s style to that of the cinema, where the camera moves from one setting to another, settling on a character, surveying his or her surroundings, and so on. As a result, there is no direct connection made between the storyteller and the reader. Jones makes a similar observation: “[Greene] resorts to the tricks of the cinema – swift juxtaposition of scene, character, and tone – and is often, because of this, slick and ambiguous in his effects.” These techniques also apply to Greene’s short stories and are evident in “The Destructors.” “The Destructors” is regarded as one of Greene’s most accomplished and important pieces of short fiction. In Understanding Graham Greene, R. H. Miller writes: ‘The Destructors’ may be Greene’s best story and perhaps one of the finest in the language. It has all the qualities that have come to be expected in the short story: focus, compression, pace, and that element of surprise, that epiphany that brings one to recognizing a powerful truth. It works as both parable and allegory, parable in the sense that it is a narrative in a relatively contemporaneous setting that makes a clear moral point, allegorical in the sense that it ‘signifies’ on several levels. Critics often comment on the story within the historical context of the postwar era in England. Miller observes that the story reflects conditions in England in the postwar years when the gradual recovery ushered in unexpected shifts in social and political dynamics. Many communities (like the one in the story) lay in ruins, and once Mr. Thomas’s house is destroyed, Miller writes, “the landscape of Wormsley Common has rational consistency.” In Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, Volume Seven: Writers After World War II, 1945-1960, Richard Hauer Costa observes: By reversing every assumed value ‘The Destructors’ flips innocence [represented by the boys] into an unaccustomed controlling position over corruption [represented by society]. Time and place – the World War II blitzkrieg of London – are ripe for it, and Greene makes the most of his opportunity. Also examining the political landscape of the story, Neil Nehring of Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 162: British Short-Fiction Writers, 1915-1945, asserts that Greene’s admission late in life that he had anarchist tendencies in his work should have been obvious in works like “The Destructors.” Nehring comments, Anarchism is central to ‘The Destructors,’ for the story’s thesis – ‘destruction after all is a form of creation’ – is adapted from anarchist Mikhail Bakunin’s famous line that ‘the passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!’ On the other hand, Jesse F. McCartney of Southern Humanities Review sees the gang as symbolizing democratic socialism struggling against privilege and conservative politics. Other critics are quick to note that the story resonates with today’s audience because what is disturbing in the story continues to be part of daily life. Nehring, for example, remarks that the story “certainly has an air of prophecy, and Greene’s prescience [foresight] in this case seems to be intentional.” Nehring adds that the actions of the Wormsley Common gang are only the beginning of the changes to come. Looking to the future, Miller notes, “‘The Destructors’ will remain a disturbingly powerful story and take on even more significance as time passes.”
Author Biography
Graham Greene was born in Hertfordshire, England, on October 2, 1904, to Marion (first cousin of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson) and Charles Henry Greene, a school headmaster. An introverted and sensitive child, his early years were difficult because of his strict father and boarding school bullies. At sixteen, he suffered a psychological breakdown and went to London for treatment by a student of Sigmund Freud. While in London, Greene became an avid reader and writer. He met Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, who became lifelong literary mentors to him. His other influences were Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and Ford Madox Ford. After graduating from high school in 1922, Greene attended Oxford University’s Balliol College where he received a degree in history in 1925. While at college, Greene became interested in politics, especially Marxist socialism (but not communism). This sometimes created tension in Greene’s friendship with the conservative writer Evelyn Waugh, although the two remained steady friends for many years. In 1926, Greene converted to Catholicism for his fiancée, Vivien Dayrell Browning, whom he married the following year. The couple eventually had two children. Greene is generally considered a Catholic writer despite his insistence that the conversion was not his greatest literary influence. During World War II, Greene did intelligence work for the British government in West Africa. His experiences at home and abroad inspired works like “The Destructors” and The Heart of the Matter. In addition to his novels of intrigue, peopled with spies, criminals, and other colorful characters, Greene wrote short stories, essays, screenplays, autobiographies, and criticism. He is considered one of the most important English writers of the twentieth century, and his honors include consideration for a Nobel Prize. His works are popular with critics and readers; they have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over twenty million copies. Greene died of a blood disease in Vevey, Switzerland, on April 3, 1991. “ELAHE MOHAMMADI”
CIVIL WAR AND POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION
January 13, 2008North and South went to war in April 1861. The Southern states had claimed the right to secede and had formed their own Confederacy. Their forces fired the first shots. The Northern states, under the leadership of President Lincoln, were determined to stop the rebellion and preserve the Union . The North had more than twice as many states and twice as many people. It had abundant facilities for producing war supplies, as well as a superior railway network. The South had more experienced military leaders and had the advantage of fighting mostly on its own territory. For four years, ground battles involving tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were fought in Virginia , Maryland , Pennsylvania , Tennessee , and Georgia . Naval battles were fought off the Atlantic coast and on the Mississippi River . In that area, Union forces won an almost uninterrupted series of victories. In Virginia , by contrast, they met defeat after defeat in their attempts to capture Richmond , the Confederate capital. The single bloodiest day of the war was on September 17, 1862, when the two armies met at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg , Maryland . Confederate troops led by General Robert E. Lee failed to force back the Union troops led by General George McClellan, and Lee escaped with his army intact. McClellan was fired. Although the battle was inconclusive in military terms, its consequences were enormous. Britain and France had been planning to recognize the Confederacy. They delayed their decisions, and the South never received the aid it desperately needed. Several months later, President Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It freed all slaves living in Confederate states and authorized the recruitment of African Americans into the Union army. Now the North was no longer fighting just to preserve the Union . It was fighting to end slavery. Union forces gained momentum in 1863 with victories at Vicksburg in Mississippi and Gettysburg in Pennsylvania , and then with the scorched-earth policy of General William T. Sherman as he marched across Georgia and into South Carolina in 1864. By April 1865, huge Union armies under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant had surrounded Robert E. Lee in Virginia . Lee surrendered, and the American Civil War was over. The terms of surrender were generous. “The rebels are our countrymen again,” Grant reminded his troops. In Washington , President Lincoln was ready to begin the process of reconciliation. He never got the chance. Less than a week after the South surrendered, he was assassinated by a Southerner embittered by the defeat. The task would fall to Lincoln ‘s vice president, Andrew Johnson, a Southerner who favored quick and easy “Reconstruction.” Johnson issued pardons that restored the political rights of many Southerners. By the end of 1865, almost all former Confederate states had held conventions to repeal the acts of secession and to abolish slavery, but all except Tennessee refused to ratify a constitutional amendment giving full citizenship to African Americans. As a result, Republicans in Congress decided to implement their own version of Reconstruction. They enacted punitive measures against former rebels and prevented former Confederate leaders from holding office. They divided the South into five military districts administered by Union generals. They denied voting rights to anyone who refused to take a loyalty oath to the Union . And they strongly supported the rights of African Americans. President Johnson tried to block many of these policies and was impeached. The vote fell short, and he remained in office, but Congress would continue to wield enormous power for the next 30 years. The divisions and hatreds that had led to the Civil War did not disappear after the fighting stopped. As Southern whites regained political power, Southern blacks suffered. They had gained their freedom but were prevented from enjoying it by local laws denying them access to many public facilities. They had gained the right to vote but were intimidated at the polls. The South had become segregated and would remain so for 100 years. The postwar Reconstruction process had begun with high ideals but collapsed into a sinkhole of corruption and racism. Its failure deferred the struggle for equality for African Americans until the 20th century, when it would become a national, not just a Southern, issue. Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. The 4th of July has since been celebrated
EARLY AMERICA
January 13, 2008
The settlers had many different reasons for coming to America , and eventually 13 distinct colonies developed here. Differences among the three regional groupings of colonies were even more marked. The first settlements were built along the Atlantic coast and on the rivers that flowed to the ocean. In the Northeast, settlers found hills covered with trees and soil filled with stones left behind when the Ice Age glaciers melted. Water power was easy to harness, so “New England” – including Massachusetts , Connecticut , and Rhode Island – developed an economy based on wood products, fishing, shipbuilding, and trade. The middle colonies – including New York and Pennsylvania – had a milder climate and more varied terrain. Both industry and agriculture developed there, and society was more varied and cosmopolitan. In New York , for example, one could find Bohemians, Danes, Dutch, English, French, Germans, Irish, Italians, Norwegians, Poles, Portuguese, Scots, and Swedes. The Southern colonies – Virginia , Georgia , and the Carolinas – had a long growing season and fertile soil, and the economy was primarily agricultural. There were both small farmers and wealthy aristocratic landowners who owned large plantations worked by African slaves. Relations between settlers and Native Americans, who were called Indians, were an uneasy mix of cooperation and conflict. Certain areas saw trade and some social interaction, but in general, as the new settlements expanded, the Indians were forced to move, often after being defeated in battle. Settlement of the American colonies was directly sponsored not by the British government, but by private groups. All except Georgia emerged as companies of shareholders or as proprietorships chartered by the king. Some were governed rigidly by company leaders, but in time, all developed a system of participatory government based on British legal precedent and tradition. Years of political turmoil in Britain culminated with the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 that deposed King James II and led to limits on the monarchy and greater freedoms for the people. The American colonies benefited from these changes. Colonial assemblies claimed the right to act as local parliaments. They passed measures that limited the power of royal governors and expanded their own power. Over the decades that followed, recurring disputes between the governors and assemblies awakened colonists to the increasing divergence between American and British interests. The principles and precedents that emerged from these disputes became the unwritten constitution of the colonies. At first, the focus was on self-government within a British commonwealth . Only later came the call for independence.
The history of the United States has been an experiment in democracy for more than 200 years. Issues that were addressed in the early years continue to be addressed and resolved today: big government versus small government, individual rights versus group rights, unfettered capitalism versus regulated commerce and labor, engagement with the world versus isolationism. The expectations for American democracy have always been high, and the reality has sometimes been disappointing. Yet the nation has grown and prospered, through a continual process of adaptation and compromise.
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CULTURAL CHANGE
January 13, 2008
1950-1980 Most Americans felt confident with their role in the world in the 1950s. They accepted the need for a strong stance against global Communism and supported efforts to share the benefits of democracy as widely as possible. At home, they were experiencing phenomenal economic gains and a shift to a service economy. A boom in births fueled the growth of suburban areas around cities. Yet not all Americans participated in this good life, and gradually, challenges to the status quo began to mount. African Americans launched a movement to guarantee fair treatment everywhere. They won a major victory in 1954 when the Supreme Court ruled that separate educational facilities for black children were not equal to those for white children. The decision started the process of desegregating the nation’s public schools. In the 1960s – led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and with the support of President Lyndon Johnson – African Americans won passage of civil rights and voting rights legislation. Some black leaders, such as Malcolm X, argued against interracial cooperation, and some militant calls for reform led to violence. However, many African Americans made quiet, steady progress into the ranks of the middle class, leading to a profound demographic change in American society. During the 1960s-70s, many American women expressed frustration that they did not have the same opportunities as men. Led by writer Betty Friedan and journalist Gloria Steinem, they organized a movement that helped change laws and traditions to give women the chance to compete equally with men in business and education. However, their efforts to adopt a constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women fell short when only 35 of the necessary 38 states ratified it. A new generation of Native-American leaders organized to defend the rights the government had promised in various treaties with tribal groups. They used the court system to regain control of tribal lands and water rights. They used the legislative process to get the assistance they needed to house and educate their people. The first Native American to be elected to the Senate was Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 1992. Hispanic Americans, especially those whose families came from Mexico , Central America, Puerto Rico, and Cuba , became more politically active, too. They were elected to local, state, and national offices, and they organized to fight discrimination. César Chلvez, for example, led a nationwide consumer boycott of California grapes that forced growers to negotiate with his United Farm Workers union for higher wages and improved working conditions. Many students became politically active to protest the war in Vietnam , which they believed was immoral. They organized large protests that eventually put pressure on President Johnson to begin peace negotiations. Young people also began to reject their parents’ cultural values. The most visible signs of the so-called counterculture were long hair, rock-and-roll music, and the use of illegal drugs. Americans concerned about the environment organized efforts to reduce air and water pollution. The year 1970 saw the first “Earth Day” celebration and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental legislation reflected the need to reduce pollutants without imposing burdensome costs on industries. The great social changes of the 1950s-1980s grew out of an open, fluid, and diverse society. Demands for change were sometimes peaceful, sometimes deadly. Compromises were necessary. Surely, if sometimes slowly, the United States changed to better reflect its multicultural foundation. |
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