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Symbols In The Destructors

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The reader's first impression of “The Destructors” is that the story is a simple narrative of senseless violence and wanton destruction carried out by thoughtless, amoral adolescents. This act of destruction is of course intensely symbolic as it represents the way T. and the other members of the gang have become deeply psychologically damaged as a result of growing up during the second world war. The use of symbolism in the short story is used to help convey the sense of hollowness that accompanies England in the wake of the bombing in World War II. The tension between working-class Britain and the upper-middle class society that has absorbed all but the last traces of the nobility had surfaced dramatically in the years following the previous …show more content…

Their meeting place is a site of destruction. Their sense of communion is only forged at a location where destruction is evident. This is representative of how the gang relates to their world. Such symbolism is seen in T.'s plans to destroy Mr. Thomas' house. The detailed and methodical manner in which the gang takes to blow up is symbolic, as well. The group takes a detailed approach to destruction. This is all they know. The gang of kids is not shown to be able to construct anything. All they do is destroy. This is their sole capacity. The destroyed house of Mr. Thomas is symbolic of a time in England that has passed. At the end of the story, Mr. Thomas demands some type of acknowledgement that his home is destroyed. His response from the lorry driver is one of humor as well as the claim that "it's nothing personal." For Mr. Thomas, there is little personal involved here. The reaction he sees after his house has been leveled to the ground is symbolic of the new postwar world in which England enters. This world is one in which there is "nothing personal." The destruction of his house and the callous response of the world in the form of the lorry driver to it is reflective of a setting in which emotional attachments are lost in favor of modern

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