Examples Of Irony In The Destructors

The Destructors, written by Graham Greene, is an ironic piece depicted after World War 2 in London, England, where a group of mischievous kids harass an old man who lives next to their hangout. The faction always took part in little acts of thievery, harassment, and downright nonsense, until the day they decide to go for the big act: Taking down Old Misery’s masterpiece of a house. Though it may be that the house was old, and had already missed being destroyed by the Blitzes of WW2, this story involves the complete destruction by a rag-tag group of demolitionists. Graham Greene uses irony, both verbal and situational to conflict and interest the reader. Two examples of irony in The Destructors are the fact that Mike goes to church, yet is helping tear down someone’s property, and the fact that T., or Trevor, is wanting to destroy a piece of architecture, yet his father is an architect. In the following paragraphs, I will explain why these examples are ironic, what type of irony they are, and their function in the story.

In the first example, Mike going to church (“We meet here at nine sharp.” “I’ve got to go to church,” Mike said.

“Come over the wall and whistle. let you in.”) would be an example of situational irony, being that you would not expect someone who steals and harasses to be the one to attend church regularly. This situational irony is used to interest the reader by a somewhat humorous example. It is funny that a thug is worried about missing church with his parents. Situational irony is used by authors to lighten the mood, while adding some depth to the scene. This example also let’s the reader peer into the one of the lives of the children of this group, which in this situation, reminds us that these are indeed children that take down Old Misery’s

house.

An example of verbal irony would be where in the beginning, Mike is threatened to have a frog shoved down his throat (“If you don’t shut your mouth,” somebody once said to him, “you’ll get a frog down it.”) In this instance, the other person is probably not going to literally shove a frog down Mike’s throat, but instead is used as a threat or a phrase intending harm that will actually happen. Another form of verbal irony would be someone’s mother saying, “I see that you have cleaned your room,” when in all actuality you have nowhere near started cleaning your room. Verbal irony is intended from character to character, which is read by the reader and provides another form of humor and depth to the scene.

As previously stated, both situational and verbal irony play major roles in this piece by Graham Greene. In the end, it is ironic that the house that survived all the horror and destruction caused by the Blitzes, seemingly untouched with chaos all around, only to be torn down by a pesky group of rascals. Though this part of the piece is saturated with irony, it is still sad that Old Misery, who had no quarrel with the boys, had everything he loved destroyed all because someone wanted a little fun. That someone, you may note, claimed to not even hate the old man, which is one final piece of irony.