The Destructors

Greene converted to Catholicism in his twenties, in part to begin a long and often unhappy marriage to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, a devout Catholic. Despite their difficult relationship, which lead to them being estranged if not divorced, he took his faith seriously and made it the center of much of his fiction, including the novels The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, and The End of the Affair. Like many Catholics in the aftermath of World War II, Greene called for a return to religion. In Greene’s view, the Western world’s growing trust in science was misplaced. Science can improve lives, but it can also lead to the atomic bomb and the Holocaust. Greene believed science needs the counterbalance of religion if society is to be just and moral.

In “The Destructors,” Greene portrays the logical extreme of a fully secular society through a gang of hoodlum boys. Perhaps the beautiful home represents religious tradition, and the old man represents traditional morality overwhelmed by the destructive forces of materialism. From this perspective, “The Destructors” is an allegory, a story with a coded meaning that is beyond the literal action. T is the new leader of the gang, but he is also a personification of philosophical materialism, a secular and scientific approach to reality that Greene feared might destroy society if it lacked the counterbalance of religion. Since “The Destructors” is also a satire, Greene seems to consider this shift in society to be worthy of mockery and criticism. “The Destructors” may be an allegory for a possible future, but it is also a dark comedy about secular society’s trust in science.

One of the story’s central themes is the illusion of order. In the beginning, the Wormsley Common Gang is preoccupied with order. They meet every day in the same place. They have rules. They function as a democracy. They see T as a new “recruit” (3), and their leader, Blackie, reprimands him when he’s late or misses a vote. In many ways, the gang demonstrates the characteristics of order and reason, even when their intentions are nefarious. Furthermore, they take this dedication to order and reason to extremes. They follow whoever has a clear plan and withdraw their allegiance as soon as a leader shows any ambiguity. They cannot tolerate mystery.

Greene suggests the profound questions of existence will always be mysterious, and people need religion to guide them. The Wormsley Common Gang, however, is a personification of a secular society that cannot abide mystery and demands a clear, practical plan, even if the plan is horrifying, as many of the plans during World War II were horrifying. All T has to do to claim control of the gang is to suggest a clear plan. Once T becomes the leader, he organizes the supplies and troops and gives clear instructions. Even Blackie, who at one point hopes they won’t go through with it, is impressed by how organized the operation is. He too conforms. Everyone respects T’s leadership until he seems uncertain. At that point, “his authority had gone with his ambiguity” (13). Greene suggests that religion is too often dismissed as vague superstition, and science is too often heralded as airtight and logical. He believed people need both, and “The Destructors” illustrates how a clear, organized, democratic plan with a knowledgeable leader can still result in madness and immorality. If the gang’s efforts are indeed highly organized, this order leads to a chaos of loose boards, shattered basins, and clipped wires.

Since this allegory portrays a society destroying the last vestige of religion, there are few allusions to religion in the story. T says Old Misery’s house was designed by Christopher Wren, who designed St. Paul’s Cathedral. Paul was one of the key people responsible for making Christianity a global religion. This detail imbues Old Misery’s house with a religious aura. It is described as “beautiful” (6) and “crippled” (4), two words that exactly describe Greene’s feelings about the Catholic Church in the 20th century. T, the philosophical materialist that he is, is determined to destroy the house so completely that it could never again “be a home” (13). He characterizes the gang inside the house as worms inside an apple (7). This is likely an allusion to the apple in the Garden of Eden, an apple that comes from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Greene suggests that the knowledge that comes from science and reason corrupts the apple and Adam and Eve. Moreover, the gang begins destroying Old Misery’s house on Sunday, which for Christians is the Sabbath, a day for rest and religious reverence. The Wormsley Gang’s efforts can be seen as heretical and blasphemous.

T, of course, would consider such claims “hooey” (11). The immaterial world of love and hate, right and wrong, doesn’t exist according to him. A personification of philosophical materialism, he says there are only physical things. This aligns with the view that human values are socially constructed and not ordained by a higher power. If this is true, Greene seems to be saying, there’s no reason why the destruction of a man’s house should be considered tragic or unfair if the majority chooses it. There’s no reason why people shouldn’t laugh. If readers recoil in horror at what the boys have done, they are forced to ask themselves why.

For Greene, it seems, the faithful will be a pitiable lot at the end of religion. Old Misery, a kind man past his prime, personifies them, and in this allegory, he ends up trapped in an outhouse, reliant on the gang to feed him. The boys say they want him to be “comfortable” (17), and indeed scientific progress can make life more convenient if one only considers material comfort. At the end of the story, Old Misery stands outraged in the rubble of his home. The only comfort he’s offered is the truck driver’s laughter. This biting conclusion is both funny and chilling. “The Destructors” is a satirical allegory that offers a harsh critique of Western society.