Graham Greene's Writing Style example essay topic

Graham Greene has a style of writing, which incorporates much meaning with a hint of dry humor. The environment in which a writer lives determines the type of works that they will produce. Another factor which many writers take advantage of is a select type of genre or author that they read at earlier stages in the development of their writing style. Like most writers, Graham Greene's style reflects his upbringing. Greene was born fourth of six siblings to an English family in 1904. He preferred reading rather than physical activity, which helped aid in his alienation.

He read mostly adventure books by such authors as Rider Haggard and R.M. Ballantyne. These authors had a great impact on his method of writing. Most students harassed Greene because his father was the headmaster of the school in which he attended. He attempted to commit suicide on numerous occasions. Pursuant to the attempts at taking his own life and running away from home for a brief period of time, Greene was sent to a psychiatrist named Kenneth Richmond. Richmond was able to get Greene to take his depressive emotions and channel them into a form of expression.

Writing became the medium by which Greene spilled his emotions. Greene was introduced to the poetic writings of Walter de la Mare during this time as well. Greene attended Balliol College where he earned a B.A. in modern history. During his higher education, Graham became an editor for The Oxford Outlook, finished his first novel: Anthony Sant, and joined the Communist Party.

After college, Greene worked for several publications. Graham eventually married and became a catholic. He moved on to becoming a full time writer. At crucial times during the 20th century, Graham worked for several government agencies. He would travel much during this time and learn an extensive amount about war and politics. All his experiences would eventually be incorporated into his writings.

Three works of the short story genre that Graham Green created that are worthy of review are The Destructors, A Shocking Accident, and The Blue Film. All three stories have a common characteristic. This distinguishing factor is a character in each that is striving to understand their surroundings and their purpose. All have different ways of expressing themselves. Each story involves a situation, which can be perceived in two different ways.

These situations can be either humorous or serious in nature. There is definite deeper meaning in each story, which makes the reader reflect upon the events as they pertain to the account as well as how they might affect real life situations. Each story has a sense of reality. There is nothing too extraordinarily unbelievable in the situations involved. The Destructors is about a gang of children and a plan, which their new leader has them partake in. The narrator throughout the story holds a third person perspective in which all feelings and emotions among the characters can be seen and portrayed.

As can be suspected, there is a much deeper meaning to the whole chain of events. The leader of the gang has the name Trevor. Everyone calls him "T" because it is the belief of the members that Trevor is too preppy a name. The previous leader of the gang, Blackie, thinks that even the use of T's full name will result in possible demotion of powers.

Throughout the whole story, Blackie is looking for reasons why T should not be the leader. Blackie would eventually realize that T knew what he was doing and would gain acceptance of him. T demoted Blackie due to the acquisition of his position. Another member, Mike, who is nine, does not talk very often because it is his belief that he will be punished for doing so. In the past other members had threatened him when he spoke.

Mike finds it awkward that T has been a member of the gang for such a short period of time but has already taken it over. The gang members are very young. T is fifteen and Mike is nine. These are possibly the two extremes being that they were the only ages given. It is not specified whether T is the oldest in the gang although it is easily concluded that he in fact is, based on his leadership abilities among his other characteristics. T gets a tour of a house in the neighborhood at one point and reports back to the gang about it.

It is at this point that both Blackie and Mike believe that the gang will turn on him. The way that T describes the house is such that he seems to be appreciating the aesthetics of its architecture. The gang is starting to take him for a pansy. He saves his authority when he gets to the point for giving his description. T wanted to destroy the house from the inside as to make it collapse upon itself.

This plan is to a much greater magnitude in its shock effect from a standpoint of society as opposed to the previously suggested plan for the day. The plan given before the arrival of T for that day had been to hitch rides on as many buses as possible without paying toll. The children decide after some contemplation that T's plan will be a groundbreaking accomplishment for the gang and they might actually get some publicity because of it. These children seem to have misconstrued outlooks on life, not truly seeing the purpose of what they are about to take part in. They do realize that it bares some importance to reinforcing their beliefs in their current philosophies on life. The gang meets in a car lot.

The house that the boys agree to destroy is very close to the lot. The area that they lived in had been bombed at one point in time when the children were too young to remember. The house stands in between two empty lots where houses once stood before the bombing. The owner of the house took pride in knowing that his house was lucky enough to survive a bombing and was of original architecture by a well-known designer. Mr. Thomas, the owner, truly values his house. He was also nice to the children.

The gang met in his house while he was on a brief trip. They used mostly stolen tools to destroy the house completely from the inside removing key supports, floors, tiles, and panels. They destroyed dining sets, started a flood, and even burned money. They did not steal anything.

Destruction as, mentioned in the story was a "form of creation" because imagination was used to create a master plan of destruction. T had imagined the house's destruction in such a manner that the "destructors" could be viewed as artists. The house became T's work of art in a sense. While doing all of this, they held no grudge against Mr. Thomas for anything.

In fact, they liked him. Mr. Thomas came home early. Some, of the boys made a diversion and were able to trap Mr. Thomas in the outhouse located in the back courtyard of his residence. The children actually went as far as to feed Mr. Thomas and give him a blanket to sleep with. The last thing the children wanted to do was hurt him. The children can be thought to be doing all this as a form of expression.

By the morning of the second day, the children had finished and gone. The house was still standing, but only a small amount of support was holding it in. A man went to get the sole car remaining in the lot. The man started to back out, wondering why his car felt like it was having trouble.

He put the car into drive and at this point the house collapsed. The children had tied a rope to the car's bumper to which they tied to a key support in the house. The children had made the culminating step involuntarily produced by a grownup societal conformist. This clearly symbolizes that no matter how bad things get, you always deal yourself the final blow. The driver found Mr. Thomson and released him from his entrapment. Similar to what will be seen in A Shocking Accident, the driver cannot contain his laughter because the situation as a whole was genuinely humorous from everyone's standpoint but that of Mr. Thomas.

A Shocking Accident is about a man that has to deal with one problem that affects him throughout his whole life. Jerome learned of his father's death at a very young age. His boarding school headmaster had to tell him. The headmaster found it very difficult to tell Jerome the news because the cause of his father's death was such a ridiculous one that he almost felt like it was a mockery to even say it. The headmaster eventually blurted to Jerome that a pig, which fell from a broken balcony, had killed his father. Before Jerome had heard how the death occurred, he asked the headmaster if his father had been shot through the heart.

The mentality, which Jerome had taken, was that of his father being a hero and working as a secret agent and the likes. Jerome was very imaginative, thinking the world of his father. Getting killed by a pig was such a unsettling way to have ones father die. Jerome would have rather heard that his father was killed in a gunfight or at least from being attacked by the pig. He did not realize that there was humor involved in his father's death until he went to public school and was given the nickname Pig by many after the context of his father's death was explained to them. It was not stated directly but it can be inferred that Jerome very well could have been traumatized by the fact that people called him the very thing that killed his father.

His father's death started to truly define his own life. The real conflict of this story stems from Jerome's abilities to make friends later on in his life. Whenever he knew someone for a long enough period of time he would eventually get to a point were they would ask questions regarding the context of his father's death. At this juncture, he could go about answering the question in various different ways. The problem at hand was that it was very hard for him to stay friends with anyone that laughed, even if accidental, at the circumstances of his father's death.

One method he used to avoid laughter was to make the story as boring as possible and only make it a small detail in the whole. Another would be to get through that exact part of the conversation very fast as to not give any true detail to the circumstances other than it being a pig that caused the death. Jerome eventually finds a woman that he loves. He gets engaged with her. He waits until a week before the wedding before she finds out.

His fianc'e went for dinner at his aunt's house and his aunt told her the whole story. The major stress that encompassed Jerome's mind was whether she was going to laugh. If she laughed than he would be afraid that he would lose the love of his life. Fortunately for him, his fianc'e was deeply concerned and entranced by the most awkward of stories. After this point, all the pressure that ever built up about people laughing was released and he never had trouble telling the story of his father's death to anyone thereafter. This shows that the trauma of a tragic situation can only be fixed by acceptance of the situation from another traumatic experience that turns out positive.

Such is the case with a traumatic experience that turns out seemingly positive in The Blue Film. The Blue Film is unique in that the names of the characters remain Mr. and Mrs. Carter throughout the whole story as to give hint to the real names of the individuals being hidden. The reason this was possibly done was to show that this awkward situation could have occurred to any married couple in there fifties. It also emphasizes the understanding acquired through marriage.

This story is about a married couple finding secrets about each other's past. Mr. Carter went on a business trip and brought his wife along. The Carters wanted to find something to entertain them, the wife particularly. Mr. Carter met an individual on the street that was prostituting young children, but was also hosting a room were pornographic videos could be seen via projection during an era when pornography was illegal. The films were referred to as being French films as to show that they were not common.

Mrs. Carter was interested in this, so the both of them went to see the movies. They did not like the first movie because the actors were not youthful. At the start of the second movie it is immediately noticed that the actors were much more young-looking. Mr. Carter thought to himself thinking that he knew the person in the video before. He then realized that he had performed in a pornographic film many years prior to his marriage. He tried to get his wife out of the movie room before she could see his face on the screen.

He failed and she saw him. She was very upset with him. He explained that he knew the woman on the screen for a long while. At one point the name of the girl was asked. It can be concluded that Mr. Carter lied rather than telling his wife that he had forgotten the name, which would have immediately caused more trouble to ensue. Carter's wife eventually realized her pointlessness in being annoyed at him for having sexual urges before he married her.

He still felt like he betrayed his wife by the end of the night. The reason for this is unclear though. It could possibly have had to do with the time period and if it was acceptable to have sex before marriage. Mrs. Carter might have also triggered a preprogrammed feeling of disgust, but then realized that this was not necessary. Graham Greene's writing style uses many clues that need to be thought deeply into to understand. His works show how the worst things can have humor and consequently how the most humorous things could be made to have a negative connotation.

Greene died in 1991, but most of his works still remain in print today. Because of the controversy and humor involved in his writings people believe many of his stories to be their favorites, even though he was an anti-American Communist bastard. Green, Graham. Collected Short Stories. Penguin Books.

New York, NY. 1986. Greenland. Graham Green (1904-1991). web 12/13/2002.