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Theme Of Helplessness In The Destructors

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Vulnerability is the birthplace of change. The fictional short story The Destructors by Graham Greene is about a gang of young boys in post-Blitzkrieg England who like to cause mischief. The story follows the gang through their greatest bit of shenanigans ever. A theme of helplessness runs deep throughout. Feelings of helplessness change a person’s sense of identity from being self-focussed to group-focussed through empathy. A lack of helplessness lets a person be confident but narrow about their own position. At the beginning of the story, Blackie is ringmaster of the gang. Blackie doesn’t feel any helplessness, he knows he’s wanted and relishes in it. He makes every decision for the gang and they either participate in that day’s activities …show more content…

When Blackie comes to the end of his original leadership, he feels superfluous. The gang had gathered around T now and was “paying no more attention to him than to a stranger,” (Greene 4) and Blackie felt unneeded, unnecessary. He lost his sense of identity of group leader and felt no one would be able to do it better than he had. “He thought of going home, of never returning, of letting them all discover the hollowness of T’s leadership,” (4). Blackie sulks for a bit, feeling like being “any ordinary member of the gang,” (4) is just too ordinary. But then Mr Thomas is coming home too early and the gang turns on T saying they can’t finish in time and that he should just run along home. Blackie watches T panic and go through the same loss of identity and he feels empathy, having gone through it very recently. He sees a member of his gang in trouble and it brings him out of his sulky funk, needed once more. People can be pulled from their place of helplessness through empathy.
Teamplayers can evolve from a self-focussed person through compassion that feelings of helplessness bring. Confidence or a lack of helplessness causes people to be sure of their self identity. Fresh self identity can come from feelings of helplessness and empathy caused by these feelings help people get out of their bad place. The theme of helplessness affecting identity is absolutely one that relates to everyday life and is ultimately what makes The Destructors so

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