Being part of a gang provided each of the members a sense of being part of something concrete and consistent as they, “met every morning in an impromptu car-park”(Greene 463). This desire to be included often compels the boys to follow the group, irrespective of whether the groups’ actions were right or wrong. Greene’s story works toward a climax when Trevor, the latest recruit in the gang, purposes to obliterate Mr. Thomas’s house: “‘We’ll put it down,’ he said. ‘We’ll destroy it’” (Greene 465). Trevor’s plan is accepted, almost automatically, by the group:
Blackie said uneasily, “It’s proposed that tomorrow and Monday we destroy Old Misery’s house.”
“Here, here” said a fat boy called Joe.
“Who’s in favor?”
T said, “It’s carried.”
“How do we start?” Summers asked. (Greene 466)
As a result, Trevor becomes the gang’s new leader as Blackie,
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Trevor’s plan is a massive shift away from the group’s usual petty crimes, but now, Trevor is the leader of the group and as such decides the group’s direction. Each member of the group buckles under peer pressure as come the day of the plan came “all were punctual” (Greene 467), meaning the gang members had individually excepted Trevor’s goals, the gang’s goals, as their own. Even Blackie, the once leader, is not above the lure of what his peers are doing as he “came back to where T stood in the shadow of Old Misery’s wall” (Greene 466). Soon different members begin to tear apart Mr. Thomas’s house, “ripping out the skirting-boards in the ground flooring,” and “heaving up the parquet blocks” (Greene 466). Encouraged and persuaded now by the fact that everyone was destroying the house, the efforts begin to intensify. “Coils and wire came out…and Mike sat happily on the floor clipping the wires” (Greene 466). When Trevor finds Mr. Thomas’s life savings he