Greene is careful to point towards the setting as a
serious factor in producing a generation of children who have known nothing but war and
destruction in their lives. Given this and the way that Old Misery's house stands up
alone, it can almost be seen as an incitement to the boys. Note how the boys view their
act of destruction:
Streaks of light came in through the closed
shutters where they worked with the seriousness of creators - and destruction after all
is a form of creation. A kind of imagination had seen this house as it had now
become.
For the boys, and in
particular for T., whose father, we are told, is an architect who has come down in the
world, the destruction of the house allows them the chance to express their pent up
anger, frustrations and experiences. Note how for T. in particular, he neither loves nor
hates - life consists of "only things" to be destroyed. The postwar malaise combined
with the boys' inability to find purpose in their lives results in this act of crime
which gives them great satisfaction. Consider how T. is able to unite all the boys and
help them achieve something "great" when before they were only engaged in childish
activities.
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