56 pages • 1 hour read
Graham GreeneThe Destructors
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1954A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Further Reading & Resources
Further Reading: Literature
Works by Graham Greene:
The Power and the Glory (1940)
The Heart of the Matter (1948)
The End of the Affair (1951)
Many of Greene’s novels explore Catholic themes, but these novels are among his most celebrated. All were adapted into films, and all are tragic.
- The Heart of the Matter on SuperSummary
- The End of the Affair on SuperSummary
Works by George Orwell:
Animal Farm (1945)
1984 (1949)
Like “The Destructors,” Animal Farm is an allegory, and 1984 is a dark vision of what fascistic governments could lead to. Both stories vibrate with postwar anxiety.
- Animal Farm on SuperSummary
- 1984 on SuperSummary
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
Also a satire, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 demonstrates the absurdity of war with great humor and irony.
- Catch-22 on SuperSummary
Other Resources
“Quartet for the End of Time” by Olivier Messiaen (1942)
Messiaen wrote and debuted “Quartet for the End of Time” while still captive in a concentration camp. This rendition is performed by members of the New York Philharmonic for Carnegie Hall’s digital festival Voices of Hope, hosted in April 2021 to honor “musical works created in times of war, repression, and tyranny.”
“Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima” by Krzysztof Penderecki (1961)
Featured Collections