In this book Graham Greene tells us the story about a group of boys that call themselves as “the Wormsley Common Gang”. They are just some bad street boys that actually enjoy seeing other people suffer or other crazy things like that. They accept a new integrant because they saw a dangerous quality in Trevor, who has only fifteen years old. They refer to him as “T”.
During the war, “the Wormsley Common Gang” liked to meet each others at a site where they can hear the bomb fall sound. Unexpectedly T tells to Blackie, who the leader of the band is, that it would be very funny to make explode the neighbors house. Then Trevor says that he just visited Old Misery’s house, the neighbor, so he now know how the interior of his house looked like and they can enter and maybe steel things. But in between telling the plan he had, suddenly he thinks that it would be so much better if they destroy the house from the inside out, and so nobody can see them. The plan was going quite good. Destruct the house would give glory to the Wormsley Common Gang. They were done with the house. They totally destruct it.
When Old Misery notices that is house is gone, but then he get angry and he asks the driver what happened to it. The driver starts to laugh all over and then he apologizes but Old Misery has to admit it´s funny.
I think that if you really analyze this story you can find so many morals. Like, for example… we can notice how different humor can be depending on the neighborhoods; where you grow up has so much to do with the person you become, but in my opinion is kind of horrifying how people in general don´t realize that he’s actions can actually affect others live. The influence is one thing we humans don’t have very clear and this book is just one more example of it. Like for the gang band, they take destructing Old Misery´s house like a price to win. They think that that fact is going to make the band more famously and is going to be brilliant to his reputation, but for Old Misery they are taking away all he had. They are taking away somebody´s home just because they think it´s hilarious. This is on definitive not one of my favorite books, because I don´t really see any point of this type of humor. For myself I say it is pointless.
Personally, I think that is stupid laughing or making fun with other alien persons suffer. For my part I like more elaborated jokes, but I neither recommend not reading it, because you can learn at least one thing of every book. And actually, it is good once in a while to read unusual stories and of course you don´t find many stories like this. So, my recommendation would be that it won´t affect if you read it, but when you read it try to be in a mood very simple and try to find a point of it.
