- The Destructors
"The Destructors" is a 1954
short story byGraham Greene .Plot summary
"The Destructors" occurs in the mid-1950s, and is about a boys'
gang named the "Wormsley Common Gang", after the place where they live. Trevor, or "T", theprotagonist , devises a plan to destroy a two hundred-year-old house that survivedThe Blitz , simply because it is beautiful. Under T, their new leader, the gang accepts the plan and executes it when the owner of the house, Mr. Thomas (whom the gang call "Old Misery"), is away during abank holiday weekend. Their plan is to destroy the house from inside, then tear down the remaining infrastructure. Mr Thomas returns home early, however, and the gang locks him in the outhouse and completes the destruction of his house and home. Gang leader T refuses to stop until the destruction job is complete, because even thefacade is valuable and could be reused. The final damage to the house is done when a parkedlorry pulls away a support pole from the side of the house. Mr. Thomas is released from the outhouse by the aforementionedlorry 's driver and is left with the dusty rubble of what once was his home.Television adaptation
The Destructors was adapted for television as part of the 1970s British drama series
Shades of Greene . It starredMichael Byrne ,Phil Daniels andNicholas Drake . [cite web|url= http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0698847/|title= IMDB profile for The Destructors]Allusions and references in other works
*In the film "
Donnie Darko " (2001), the eponymous protagonist valuably contributes to discussion of "The Destructors" in his English class. Several of Donnie's acts of vandalism are drawn from influences in "The Destructors", for example, the flooding of his school and the arson of the house of a pedophile promotional speaker.
*The story might have inspired the novel "We All Fall Down ", byRobert Cormier . The story of that novel begins with a group of teenagers trashing a house while the owners are away; the remainder deals with the effect of the vandalism upon the house owners and their family.References
External links
* [http://tamilnation.org/forum/sachisrikantha/010328destructors.htm Text (abridged) and allegorical references to Sri Lanka]
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