Greene’s “The Destructors”: Commercial vs. Literary Fiction

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Story and Structure
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Graham Greene’s work, “the destructors” has on many occasions elicited debate on whether it is commercial or literary fiction. This is because the analysis of the whole story reveals that it’s more bent towards a commercial than literal fiction. This essay aims to analyze and arrive at a conclusion on whether this great story is commercial or literary fiction. This will be primarily achieved through the analysis of the story and structure.

Story and Structure

First, the story uses some of the basic formulas that are inherent in commercial fiction. The existence of a protagonist whose aims and goals do not go on smoothly as planned. There is the existence of various obstacles along the chain of events that hamper the processes aligned towards the achievement of the protagonist’s goals. The achievement of the goals is eventually realized after a long struggle. The main aim of the story is to illustrate that human beings can make decisions. In the whole story, this theme is reflected in the destructors by the decisions and the actions of the characters.

This is a clear projection of an entertaining piece of work that leaves the reader with the desire to discover what the Wormley gang is going to execute next in their plan. Set in post-WW II in England, Greene has effectively used a group of young boys who collectively refer to themselves as the common Wormley gang to entertain his readers. In addition to the above, the use of figurative language defines it as more of a commercial than literary fiction. This involves the use of several metaphors and paradoxes in the story. The use of paradox is presented by the gang’s leader – T – who intones that “Even the grown-up gangs who ran the betting at the all-in wrestling and the barrow-boys would hear with respect of how Old Misery’s house had been destroyed” (Greene, 37). The exact meaning of T’s words in this extract is a paradox as no right-thinking member of any society can gain respect from the other by acts of vandalism and destruction. T also admits that he doesn’t hate Mr. This demonstrates two important facts about the pre-teen boys who are members of the Wormley Common Gang. First, they are still innocent yet they are still unable to keep their selfish decisions and second, their motives are driven not by hate but by other reasons. This forms one of the major themes in Greene’s work. In the belief of the young boys, destruction is another form of creation.

The “abductors” fall under the subgenre of adventure. Figurative language that defines a commercially entertaining piece of literature has been widely used in this piece of Green’s work. “Streaks of light came in through the closed shutters where they worked with the seriousness of creators – and destruction after all is a form of creation” (Greene, 53). The coming down of the house symbolizes the permanent alienation from society as something it can never have. The house, therefore, symbolized the gang, and y coming down, the gang disintegrated.

Furthermore, Greene’s writing style that is encompassed by the suspense is a demonstration of an entertaining piece of work. The end of the gang is not fully illustrated thus leaving the reader wondering what ensued next. The ending of the story is indeterminate in that nothing is presented by the author on whether the end of Wormley led to the birth of another gang or the complete demise of the gang. Trevor believes that nothing can be built without the walls whereas the writer persuades the reader to believe that there is a possibility of rebuilding a new house without the walls. This is due to the loss of credibility in Trevor whose words lose their meaning after the fall of the gang. The aim of Greene is making use of such antics in the story is to elicit high levels of entertainment among the readers of this work.

Commercial fiction aims at primarily entertaining which is the specific aim of the destructors. The general character of T- the Wormley common gang’s leader is primarily an entertaining one. Both Blackie and Trevor are presented as entertaining characters whose aims are to influence the other characters in defining the plot of the story.

Conclusion

The next differentiating factor that makes it be defined as commercial fiction is the lack of plausibility. This is a presentation of ordinary people with the capacity to do both good and evil. The members of the gang in this story have been presented as ordinary pre-teen boys who are innocent enough to differentiate between love and hate. This illustrates their ability to do good things by making the right decisions. However, their judgments are overshadowed by selfish decisions in attempts to signal to the senior gang that they can inflict damage. This symbolizes the capacity to do evil. From the above discussions, it can be discerned that the “Destructors” by Greene qualify as commercial fiction.

Works Cited

Greene, Graham. The Destructors. New York: Creative Education. 1998.

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Greene’s “The Destructors”: Commercial vs. Literary Fiction

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