Graham Greene The Destructors, A Shocking Accident, and The Blue Film.
Graham Greene has a style of
writing, which incorporates much meaning with a hint of dry humor. The environment in which a writ
er lives determines the type of works that they will produce. Another factor which many writers tak
e advantage of is a select type of genre or author that they read at earlier stages in the developme
nt of their writing style. Like most writers, Graham Greene's style reflects his upbringing. Greene
was born fourth of six siblings to an English family in 1904. He preferred reading rather than phy
sical activity, which helped aid in his alienation. He read mostly adventure books by such authors
as Rider Haggard and R. M. Ballantyne. These authors had a great impact on his method of writing.
Most students harassed Greene because his father was the headmaster of the school in which he attend
ed. He attempted to commit suicide on numerous occasions. Pursuant to the attempts at taking his o
wn life and running away from home for a brief period of time, Greene was sent to a psychiatrist nam
ed Kenneth Richmond. Richmond was able to get Greene to take his depressive emotions and channel th
em into a form of expression. Writing became the medium by which Greene spilled his emotions. Gree
ne was introduced to the poetic writings of Walter de la Mare during this time as well. Greene atten
ded Balliol College where he earned a B.A. in modern history. During his higher education, Graham b
ecame an editor for The Oxford Outlook, finished his first novel: Anthony Sant, and joined the Commu
nist Party. After college, Greene worked for several publications. Graham eventually married and b
ecame a catholic. He moved on to becoming a full time writer. At crucial times during the 20th cen
tury, Graham worked for several government agencies. He would travel much during this time and lear
n an extensive amount about war and politics. All his experiences would eventually be incorporated
into his writings. Three works of the short story genre that Graham Green created that are worthy o
f review are The Destructors, A Shocking Accident, and The Blue Film. All three stories have a comm
on characteristic. This distinguishing factor is a character in each that is striving to understand
their surroundings and their purpose. All have different ways of expressing themselves. Each stor
y involves a situation, which can be perceived in two different ways. These situations can be eithe
r humorous or serious in nature. There is definite deeper meaning in each story, which makes the re
ader reflect upon the events as they pertain to the account as well as how they might affect real li
fe situations. Each story has a sense of reality. There is nothing too extraordinarily unbelievabl
e in the situations involved. The Destructors is about a gang of children and a plan, which their ne
w leader has them partake in. The narrator throughout the story holds a third person perspective in
which all feelings and emotions among the characters can be seen and portrayed. As can be suspecte
d, there is a much deeper meaning to the whole chain of events. The leader of the gang has the name
Trevor. Everyone calls him "T" because it is the belief of the members that Trevor is too preppy a
name. The previous leader of the gang, Blackie, thinks that even the use of T's full name will res
ult in possible demotion of powers. Throughout the whole story, Blackie is looking for reasons why
T should not be the leader. Blackie would eventually realize that T knew what he was doing and woul
d gain acceptance of him. T demoted Blackie due to the acquisition of his position. Another member
, Mike, who is nine, does not talk very often because it is his belief that he will be punished for
doing so. In the past other members had threatened him when he spoke. Mike finds it awkward that T
has been a member of the gang for such a short period of time but has already taken it over. The ga
ng members are very young. T is fifteen and Mike is nine. These are possibly the two extremes bein
g that they were the only ages given. It is not specified whether T is the oldest in the gang altho
ugh it is easily concluded that he in fact is, based on his leadership abilities among his other cha
racteristics. T gets a tour of a house in the neighborhood at one point and reports back to the gan
g about it. It is at this point that both Blackie and Mike believe that the gang will turn on him.
The way that T describes the house is such that he seems to be appreciating the aesthetics of its a
rchitecture. The gang is starting to take him for a pansy. He saves his authority when he gets to
the point for giving his description. T wanted to destroy the house from the inside as to make it c
ollapse upon itself. This plan is to a much greater magnitude in its shock effect from a standpoint
of society as opposed to the previously suggested plan for the day. The plan given before the arri
val of T for that day had been to hitch rides on as many buses as possible without paying toll. The
children decide after some contemplation that T's plan will be a groundbreaking accomplishment for
the gang and they might actually get some publicity because of it. These children seem to have misco
nstrued outlooks on life, not truly seeing the purpose of what they are about to take part in. They
do realize that it bares some importance to reinforcing their beliefs in their current philosophies
on life. The gang meets in a car lot. The house that the boys agree to destroy is very close to t
he lot. The area that they lived in had been bombed at one point in time when the children were too
young to remember. The house stands in between two empty lots where houses once stood before the b
ombing. The owner of the house took pride in knowing that his house was lucky enough to survive a b
ombing and was of original architecture by a well-known designer. Mr. Thomas, the owner, truly valu
es his house. He was also nice to the children. The gang met in his house while he was on a brief
trip. They used mostly stolen tools to destroy the house completely from the inside removing key su
pports, floors, tiles, and panels. They destroyed dining sets, started a flood, and even burned mon
ey. They did not steal anything. Destruction as, mentioned in the story was a "form of creation" b
ecause imagination was used to create a master plan of destruction. T had imagined the house's dest
ruction in such a manner that the "destructors" could be viewed as artists. The house became T's wo
rk of art in a sense. While doing all of this, they held no grudge against Mr. Thomas for anything
. In fact, they liked him. Mr. Thomas came home early. Some, of the boys made a diversion and wer
e able to trap Mr. Thomas in the outhouse located in the back courtyard of his residence. The child
ren actually went as far as to feed Mr. Thomas and give him a blanket to sleep with. The last thing
the children wanted to do was hurt him. The children can be thought to be doing all this as a form
of expression. By the morning of the second day, the children had finished and gone. The house was
still standing, but only a small amount of support was holding it in. A man went to get the sole c
ar remaining in the lot. The man started to back out, wondering why his car felt like it was having
trouble. He put the car into drive and at this point the house collapsed. The children had tied a
rope to the car's bumper to which they tied to a key support in the house. The children had made t
he culminating step involuntarily produced by a grownup societal conformist. This clearly symbolize
s that no matter how bad things get, you always deal yourself the final blow. The driver found Mr.
Thomson and released him from his entrapment. Similar to what will be seen in A Shocking Accident,
the driver cannot contain his laughter because the situation as a whole was genuinely humorous from
everyone's standpoint but that of Mr. Thomas. A Shocking Accident is about a man that has to deal wi
th one problem that affects him throughout his whole life. Jerome learned of his father's death at
a very young age. His boarding school headmaster had to tell him. The headmaster found it very dif
ficult to tell Jerome the news because the cause of his father's death was such a ridiculous one tha
t he almost felt like it was a mockery to even say it. The headmaster eventually blurted to Jerome
that a pig, which fell from a broken balcony, had killed his father. Before Jerome had heard how th
e death occurred, he asked the headmaster if his father had been shot through the heart. The mental
ity, which Jerome had taken, was that of his father being a hero and working as a secret agent and t
he likes. Jerome was very imaginative, thinking the world of his father. Getting killed by a pig w
as such a unsettling way to have ones father die. Jerome would have rather heard that his father wa
s killed in a gunfight or at least from being attacked by the pig. He did not realize that there wa
s humor involved in his father's death until he went to public school and was given the nickname Pig
by many after the context of his father's death was explained to them. It was not stated directly
but it can be inferred that Jerome very well could have been traumatized by the fact that people cal
led him the very thing that killed his father. His father's death started to truly define his own l
ife. The real conflict of this story stems from Jerome's abilities to make friends later on in his l
ife. Whenever he knew someone for a long enough period of time he would eventually get to a point w
ere they would ask questions regarding the context of his father's death. At this juncture, he coul
d go about answering the question in various different ways. The problem at hand was that it was ve
ry hard for him to stay friends with anyone that laughed, even if accidental, at the circumstances o
f his father's death. One method he used to avoid laughter was to make the story as boring as possi
ble and only make it a small detail in the whole. Another would be to get through that exact part o
f the conversation very fast as to not give any true detail to the circumstances other than it being
a pig that caused the death. Jerome eventually finds a woman that he loves. He gets engaged with h
er. He waits until a week before the wedding before she finds out. His fiancé went for dinner at h
is aunt's house and his aunt told her the whole story. The major stress that encompassed Jerome's m
ind was whether she was going to laugh. If she laughed than he would be afraid that he would lose t
he love of his life. Fortunately for him, his fiancé was deeply concerned and entranced by the most
awkward of stories. After this point, all the pressure that ever built up about people laughing wa
s released and he never had trouble telling the story of his father's death to anyone thereafter. T
his shows that the trauma of a tragic situation can only be fixed by acceptance of the situation fro
m another traumatic experience that turns out positive. Such is the case with a traumatic experienc
e that turns out seemingly positive in The Blue Film. The Blue Film is unique in that the names of t
he characters remain Mr. and Mrs. Carter throughout the whole story as to give hint to the real name
s of the individuals being hidden. The reason this was possibly done was to show that this awkward
situation could have occurred to any married couple in there fifties. It also emphasizes the unders
tanding acquired through marriage. This story is about a married couple finding secrets about each
other's past. Mr. Carter went on a business trip and brought his wife along. The Carters wanted to
find something to entertain them, the wife particularly. Mr. Carter met an individual on the stree
t that was prostituting young children, but was also hosting a room were pornographic videos could b
e seen via projection during an era when pornography was illegal. The films were referred to as bei
ng French films as to show that they were not common. Mrs. Carter was interested in this, so the bo
th of them went to see the movies. They did not like the first movie because the actors were not yo
uthful. At the start of the second movie it is immediately noticed that the actors were much more y
oung-looking. Mr. Carter thought to himself thinking that he knew the person in the video before.
He then realized that he had performed in a pornographic film many years prior to his marriage. He
tried to get his wife out of the movie room before she could see his face on the screen. He failed
and she saw him. She was very upset with him. He explained that he knew the woman on the screen fo
r a long while. At one point the name of the girl was asked. It can be concluded that Mr. Carter l
ied rather than telling his wife that he had forgotten the name, which would have immediately caused
more trouble to ensue. Carter's wife eventually realized her pointlessness in being annoyed at him
for having sexual urges before he married her. He still felt like he betrayed his wife by the end
of the night. The reason for this is unclear though. It could possibly have had to do with the tim
e period and if it was acceptable to have sex before marriage. Mrs. Carter might have also triggere
d a preprogrammed feeling of disgust, but then realized that this was not necessary. Graham Greene's
writing style uses many clues that need to be thought deeply into to understand. His works show ho
w the worst things can have humor and consequently how the most humorous things could be made to hav
e a negative connotation. Greene died in 1991, but most of his works still remain in print today.
Because of the controversy and humor involved in his writings people believe many of his stories to
be their favorites, even though he was an anti-American Communist bastard. graham greene destructors
shocking accident blue film graham greene style writing which incorporates much meaning with hint h
umor environment which writer lives determines type works that they will produce another factor whic
h many writers take advantage select type genre author that they read earlier stages development the
ir writing style like most writers graham greene style reflects upbringing born fourth siblings engl
ish family preferred reading rather than physical activity helped alienation read mostly adventure b
ooks such authors rider haggard ballantyne these authors great impact method writing most students h
arassed because father headmaster school attended attempted commit suicide numerous occasions pursua
nt attempts taking life running away from home brief period time sent psychiatrist named kenneth ric
hmond richmond able take depressive emotions channel them into form expression became medium spilled
emotions introduced poetic writings walter mare during this time well attended balliol college wher
e earned modern history during higher education became editor oxford outlook finished first novel an
thony sant joined communist party after college worked several publications eventually married becam
e catholic moved becoming full time writer crucial times during century worked several government ag
encies would travel much this learn extensive amount about politics experiences would eventually inc
orporated into writings three works short story genre that green created worthy review destructors s
hocking accident blue film three stories have common characteristic this distinguishing factor chara
cter each striving understand their surroundings their purpose have different ways expressing themse
lves each story involves situation perceived different ways these situations either humorous serious
nature there definite deeper meaning each story makes reader reflect upon events they pertain accou
nt well might affect real life situations sense reality there nothing extraordinarily unbelievable s
ituations involved destructors about gang children plan leader them partake narrator throughout hold
s third person perspective feelings emotions among characters seen portrayed suspected there much de
eper meaning whole chain events leader gang name trevor everyone calls because belief members trevor
preppy name previous leader gang blackie thinks even full name will result possible demotion powers
throughout whole blackie looking reasons should blackie would eventually realize knew what doing ga
in acceptance demoted acquisition position another member mike nine does talk very often because bel
ief will punished doing past other members threatened when spoke mike finds awkward been member such
short period already taken over members very young fifteen mike nine these possibly extremes being
were only ages given specified whether oldest although easily concluded fact based leadership abilit
ies among other characteristics gets tour house neighborhood point reports back about point both bel
ieve turn describes house such seems appreciating aesthetics architecture starting take pansy saves
authority when gets point giving description wanted destroy house from inside make collapse upon its
elf plan greater magnitude shock effect from standpoint society opposed previously suggested plan gi
ven before arrival been hitch rides many buses possible without paying toll children decide after so
me contemplation groundbreaking accomplishment might actually some publicity children seem have misc
onstrued outlooks life truly seeing purpose what part realize bares some importance reinforcing beli
efs current philosophies meets boys agree destroy very close area lived been bombed when were young
remember stands between empty lots where houses once stood before bombing owner took pride knowing l
ucky enough survive bombing original architecture well known designer thomas owner truly values also
nice while brief trip used mostly stolen tools destroy completely inside removing supports floors t
iles panels destroyed dining sets started flood even burned money steal anything destruction mention
ed form creation imagination used create master destruction imagined destruction manner could viewed
artists work sense while doing held grudge against thomas anything fact liked thomas came home earl
y boys made diversion were able trap outhouse located back courtyard residence actually went feed gi
ve blanket sleep with last thing wanted hurt thought form expression morning second finished gone st
ill standing only small amount support holding went sole remaining started back wondering felt like
having trouble into drive collapsed tied rope bumper tied support made culminating step involuntaril
y produced grownup societal conformist clearly symbolizes matter things always deal yourself final b
low driver found thomson released entrapment similar what seen shocking accident driver cannot conta
in laughter situation whole genuinely humorous everyone standpoint deal with problem affects through
out jerome learned father death young boarding school headmaster tell headmaster found difficult tel
l jerome news cause father death ridiculous almost felt like mockery even blurted jerome fell broken
balcony killed before heard death occurred asked shot through heart mentality taken being hero work
ing secret agent likes imaginative thinking world getting killed unsettling ones rather heard killed
gunfight least being attacked realize humor involved until went public school given nickname many a
fter context explained them stated directly inferred could traumatized fact people called thing star
ted truly define real conflict stems abilities make friends later whenever knew someone long enough
period questions regarding context juncture could answering question various different ways problem
hand hard stay friends anyone laughed accidental circumstances method used avoid laughter make borin
g possible only small detail another through exact part conversation fast give true detail circumsta
nces other than caused finds woman loves gets engaged waits until week wedding finds fianc dinner au
nt aunt told major stress encompassed mind whether going laugh laughed than afraid lose love fortuna
tely fianc deeply concerned entranced most awkward stories pressure ever built people laughing relea
sed never trouble telling anyone thereafter shows trauma tragic situation fixed acceptance traumatic
experience turns positive case traumatic experience turns seemingly positive blue film unique names
characters remain carter give hint real names individuals hidden reason possibly done show awkward
occurred married couple fifties also emphasizes understanding acquired through marriage married coup
le finding secrets past carter business trip brought wife along carters wanted find something entert
ain wife particularly carter individual street prostituting also hosting room pornographic videos se
en projection pornography illegal films referred french films show common interested both movies fir
st movie actors youthful start second movie immediately noticed actors more looking thought himself
thinking knew person video then realized performed pornographic years prior marriage tried wife movi
e room face screen failed upset explained woman screen long while girl asked concluded lied rather t
elling forgotten immediately caused more trouble ensue realized pointlessness annoyed having sexual
urges still felt betrayed night reason unclear though possibly acceptable marriage might triggered p
reprogrammed feeling disgust then realized necessary uses clues need thought deeply understand works
show worst things humor consequently humorous things made negative connotation died still remain pr
int today controversy involved writings people believe stories favorites though anti american commun
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