The Destructors Summary

is a story about a gang of
teenage boys in post-World War II London when they decide to destroy a house just to see if they
can do it.

When the story begins, a group of teenagers are
meeting in an impromptu car-park trying to find something to do.  They have recently been
joined by a new boy named T. and their leaders name is Blackie.  T shows up late one day and
says he has been in the house of Old Misery, a man that tried to rebuild most of his house after
the bombs fell.  T. proposes breaking into the house when the old man will be away.

T. raised his eyes, as gray and disturbed as the drab August day.
Well pull it down, he said. Well destroy it.

The boys
worry about the police, but since it is a holiday they are pretty sure they will be ok.  They
agree to meet at the house.  Under T.s leadership, they methodologically destroy it.

He had a sense of great urgency, and already he could begin to see the plan. The
interior of the house was being carefully demolished without touching the outer walls.  When
they are done, Blackie finally asks why they did it.

Thered be no fun if I hated him. €¦ All this hate and love, he said, its soft,
its hooey. Theres only things, Blackie, and he looked round the room crowded with the unfamiliar
shadows of half things, broken things, former things.

Mr.
Thomas arrives before the boys are completely finished, and T. distracts him by telling him that
one of the boys is stuck in the loo.  Mr. Thomas is scandalized that the boys are so familiar
with his house, but he follows.  They lock him in.  They even feed him.

The
next morning, the house is destroyed when a driver pulls away and takes the house down.  He
realizes that his truck was tied to it.  Mr. Thomas comes running out, devastated, but the
driver just thinks its funny.

One of the main themes of the story is that
life does not have inherent value to everyone.  As a people, we have chosen to follow a social
contract.  However, not every person grows up with that sense of value.  Clearly the boys in the
story grew up in a time and place where the wanton destruction of World War II left them morally
bankrupt.