Reference no: EM133439229

Reading comprehension
"The Destructors" by Graham Greene

1. What is the mood and tone of the story?
2. What is the setting of the story?
3. Why is Trevor potentially an object of ridicule by the members of the gang?
4. What two vital pieces of information are offered
regarding T.'s parents?
5. What is it about T. that sets him apart or, at least,prevents him from being mocked by the boys?
6. If Blackie was one year old during the first blitz,
approximately when does this story take place?
7. What is unusual about house No. 3 of Northwood Terrace?
8. Why is the gang "puzzled and perturbed" (160) by Old Misery's offer of chocolates?
9. On page 160, what exploit does Blackie devise for the gang? What does his idea tell the reader about how dangerous (and old) the gang members are?
10. Offer a reasonable explanation for the formation of the Wormsley Common Gang.

11. Why does Blackie not understand T.'s point when T. calls Old Misery's place "a beautiful house"?
12. What might be motivating T. to destroy Old Misery's house?
13. What simile is used to describe Old Misery's loo? Why is the simile appropriate? (page 164)
14. Explain the following sentences: "Streaks of light came in through the closed shutters where they worked with the seriousness of creators- and destruction after all is a form of creation. A kind of imagination had seen this house as it had now become" (165).
15. What is the significance of the burning of the money?
16. Explain the irony of the following line: "He didn't want to soil his house, which stood jagged and dark between the bomb-sites, saved so narrowly, as he believed, from destruction" (168).
17. Why does the lorry driver laugh at the end of the story?
18. What is the theme(s) of the story