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Catapult
Frank’s catapult. The Black Destroyer itself is destroyed in a fight with a rabbit early in the novel.
Black Destroyer Quotes in The Wasp Factory
The The Wasp Factory quotes below are all either spoken by Black Destroyer or refer to Black Destroyer. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
…it was a Sign. I was sure of that. The whole fraught episode must signify something. My automatic response might just have had something to do with the fire that the Factory had predicted, but deep inside I knew that that wasn’t all there was to it, and that there was more to come. The sign was in the whole thing, not just the unexpected ferocity of the buck I’d killed, but also in my furious, almost unthinking response and the fate of the innocent rabbits who took the brunt of my wrath.
It also meant something looking back as well as forward. The first time I murdered it was because of rabbits meeting a fiery death, and meeting that fiery death from the nozzle of a Flame-thrower virtually identical to the one I had used to exact my revenge on the warren. It was all too close and perfect. Events were shaping up faster and worse than I could have expected. I was in danger of losing control of the situation. The Rabbit Grounds – that supposed happy hunting-ground – had shown it could happen.
From the smaller to the greater, the patterns always hold true, and the Factory has taught me to watch out for them and respect them.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Black Destroyer Term Timeline in The Wasp Factory
The timeline below shows where the term Black Destroyer appears in The Wasp Factory. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: The Snake Park
...teeth at him and biting his finger. Frank eventually strangles it with his catapult, although the Black Destroyer is broken in the process. Sitting back and catching his breath, Frank knows what he...
(full context)
Satisfied that his catapult is “avenged,” Frank re-christens the hill Black Destroyer Hill . Frank has a “lovely sated feeling,” and returns home, wondering “what lessons were to...
(full context)
Chapter 3: In the Bunker
After dinner, Frank watches television and amends his maps to include the newly named Black Destroyer Hill . He thinks back to a fight he had with local boys from the mainland,...
(full context)
