Trevor’s Sketch

Trevor’s Sketch

Imagine the feelings of someone who woke up to find that most of the things they took for granted in life suddenly vanished from their reach. In “The Destructors” by Graham Greene, Trevor had that exact scenario happen to him. After the bombing of World War II, England was left in a reduced state and many prestigious jobs became devalued. Trevor went from living luxuriously to living as a petty commoner when his father lost his job as an architect as a result of the second world war; however, he refused to accept his loss quietly and goes as far as to completely destroy someone else’s house. The house was one of few which survived the bombing of England in the town he lived in and Trevor couldn’t stand the sight of it. It reminded him too much of his past and was a symbol of something that survived the war unscathed. No one- not even the gang leader of the Wormsley Common gang Blackie, saw it coming when Trevor brought the whole gang to his knees and completely turned the balance of power in order to achieve his goals. If Old Misery’s house is the antagonist, then Trevor is the protagonist who is mischievous, manipulative, and childish because of the way he acts in effortlessly taking over the gang and how he reacts to other events in the story.

Old Misery’s house was the source of his conflict- a reminder of what he once had in life before it was taken away from him by the war. Trevor’s mischievous nature led him yearning for nothing more than destruction in its pure entirety. When asked if he hated Old Misery, he replied, stating “Of course I don’t hate him … there’d be no fun if I hated him” (6). Bearing no grudge towards Old Misery, he wanted to destroy his house out of entertainment for himself. Furthermore, when he found a wad of money while destroying the house, he burned it instead of keeping it for himself. Brimming with self-satisfaction, he saw no value in keeping the money when he evaluated against the option of torching it in...