A COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF THE DESTRUCTORS AND THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER This comparison and contrast of The Destructors, by Graham Greene and The Rocking Horse Winner, by D.H. Lawrence will center on selected parts of stories from the opening through the conclusion. I will seek to compare and contrast both authors choices of characters, themes, techniques of suspense, moral statements, and conclusions.The Destructors and The Rocking Horse Winner were both written in the third person by British authors and set in post war Great Britain. The Destructors was written post World War II and The Rocking Horse Winner was written post World War I. Misery caused by poverty is the underlying theme of each story. The significance of the period each story was penned can easily be understood when considering the miserable living conditions of the people of post war Great Britain. The characters in The characters in The Destructors are not as fully developed as those in The Rocking Horse Winner. In The Destructors the characters are bound together as a distinct unit or a gang. Their overall interaction is based primarily on the destruction of Old Miserys house. Dialogue between the gang members is limited to a great extent on the houses destruction. In contrast, The Rocking Horse Winner characters, Paul, his mother, his uncle, and Bassett, are in constant conflict over poverty and bad luck as opposed to wealth and good luck. The Destructors is a story about the gang-style activities of young boys living in the inner-city poverty of post-war London and their conspiracy toward destroying an old mans house. The opening of The Rocking Horse Winner sets the tone, mood, introduction of its principal characters, and theme of a poverty stricken family and Pauls struggle to overcome their need for more money and bring luck to the family.Through T he Rocking Horse Winners theme of the quest for materialism is realized in the end. In The Destructo...
