"The Destroyers" by Graham Greene and "The Rocking Horse Winner" by DH Lawrence are in many ways completely different but also very similar in others. British men wrote these two famous stories just after World War II. Britain had been ravaged by war, so these authors' actual setting and timeline were identical. We'll examine the main characters, themes, and settings of these two incredibly well-written short stories. We will first discuss the main theme of these two short stories in order to know how to approach them in the future. Both stories primarily focus on children. Lawrence develops his characters a bit more than the characters Greene gives us a glimpse of. Greene really only develops Trevor, called "T" in the story, and Mr. Thomas, who is called Old Misery. “T” is the new kid in town who quickly becomes the leader of the gang. Mr. Thomas lives in an old, dilapidated house which is the only one left on the street. The Wormsley Gang decides to destroy Old Misery's house. In Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner," Paul is the central character of the story and his family struggles with the effects of poverty. Paul's mother naturally believes in luck; Paul is determined to find his own luck. The mother equates luck with money, as we see again and again in the phrase “…there must be more money…there must be more money.” Paul has become aware of the facade that his mother loves him when in reality she doesn't really care about him. We see Paul become obsessed with money so that he can receive some semblance of love from his mother. The two houses in these two short stories are very important and add to the intrigue. The two houses... middle of paper ... rocking horse in the middle of the night. He wanted to find the winner of the race so much that he literally rushed to his own death. "The Destroyers" ends with Mr. Thomas' house completely destroyed when a car demolishes the house. It is very ironic that it was the children, and not the bombs of a world war, who caused the destruction of Mr. Thomas's house. These two stories are testament to what happens when greed and materialism consume people. Greene made it clear that the Wormsley Gang hates Mr. Thomas for his greed, which ultimately leads to the destruction of his house. Paul wasn't supposed to die tragically in "The Rocking Horse Winner." Rather, it was Paul's mother who deserved a horrible death, not his innocent son. These stories are a perfect example of the simple truth that greed can and will destroy the people and things we cherish most in our lives..