Stories of Ourselves: "The Destructors" by Graham Greene

In this short story, a gang of boys plots to destroy the home of an elderly man.

Here are links to our lists for the short stories in Stories of Ourselves:
The Hollow of the Three Hills, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Signalman, The Happy Prince, The Yellow Wall Paper, The Son’s Veto, The Open Boat, The Moving Finger, The Door in the Wall, Sredni Vashtar, How It Happened, Her First Ball, The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection, The Fly in the Ointment, The Custody of the Pumpkin, An Englishman’s Home, The Phoenix, There Will Come Soft Rains, The Prison, The Destructors, Meteor, Billenium, The Lemon Orchard, The People Before, The Enemy, Five-Twenty, A Horse and Two Goats, Report on the Threatened City, The Rain Horse, Ming’s Biggest Prey, The Village Saint, Secrets, The Stoat, Games at Twilight, The Taste of Watermelon, Journey (Patricia Grace), The Bath, My Greatest Ambition, To Da-duh, in Memoriam, Of White Hairs and Cricket, Elephant, Sandpiper, Journey (Shirley Geok-Lin Um), The Third and Final Continent, Tyres, At Hiruharama, Real Time, On Her Knees, The Contest
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. brooding
    deeply or seriously thoughtful
    The new recruit had been with the gang since the beginning of the summer holidays, and there were possibilities about his brooding silence that all recognised.
  2. ignoble
    dishonorable in character or purpose
    What but an odd quality of danger, of the unpredictable, established him in the gang without any ignoble ceremony of initiation?
  3. blitz
    a swift military offensive with intensive aerial bombardment
    The gang met every morning in an impromptu car-park, the site of the last bomb of the first blitz.
  4. strut
    brace consisting of a bar or rod used to resist compression
    On one side of the car-park leant the first occupied house, number 3, of the shattered Northwood Terrace – literally leant, for it had suffered from the blast of the bomb and the side walls were supported on wooden struts.
  5. incendiary
    a bomb that is designed to start fires
    A smaller bomb and some incendiaries had fallen beyond, so that the house stuck up like a jagged tooth and carried on the further wall relics of its neighbour, a dado, the remains of a fireplace.
  6. ambiguous
    open to two or more interpretations
    Mike was about to answer when Blackie stopped him. As the leader he had responsibilities. ‘Suppose we are?’ he said ambiguously.
  7. common
    a piece of open land for recreational use in an urban area
    He lived alone in the crippled house, doing for himself: once a week you could see him coming back across the common with bread and vegetables, and once as the boys played in the car-park he put his head over the smashed wall of his garden and looked at them.
  8. somber
    serious and gloomy in character
    ‘I got some chocolates,’ Mr Thomas said. ‘Don’t like ’em myself. Here you are. Not enough to go round, I don’t suppose. There never is,’ he added with sombre conviction.
  9. perturbed
    thrown into a state of agitated confusion
    The gang were puzzled and perturbed by this action and tried to explain it away.
  10. rendezvous
    a meeting planned at a certain time and place
    He was late at the rendezvous, and the voting for that day’s exploit took place without him.
  11. unwary
    not alert to danger or deception
    At Blackie’s suggestion the gang was to disperse in pairs, take buses at random, and see how many free rides could be snatched from unwary conductors (the operation was to be carried out in pairs to avoid cheating).
  12. impromptu
    without advance preparation
    The gang had gathered round: it was as though an impromptu court were about to form and to try some case of deviation.
  13. deviation
    aberrant behavior
    The gang had gathered round: it was as though an impromptu court were about to form and to try some case of deviation.
  14. parody
    make a spoof of
    It was the word ‘beautiful’ that worried him – that belonged to a class world that you could still see parodied at the Wormsley Common Empire by a man wearing a top hat and a monocle, with a haw-haw accent.
  15. monocle
    lens for correcting defective vision in one eye
    It was the word ‘beautiful’ that worried him – that belonged to a class world that you could still see parodied at the Wormsley Common Empire by a man wearing a top hat and a monocle, with a haw-haw accent.
  16. exploit
    a notable achievement
    ‘If you’d broken in,’ he said sadly – that indeed would have been an exploit worthy of the gang.
  17. daunt
    cause to lose courage
    Blackie gave a single hoot of laughter and then, like Mike, fell quiet, daunted by the serious implacable gaze.
  18. implacable
    incapable of being appeased or pacified
    Blackie gave a single hoot of laughter and then, like Mike, fell quiet, daunted by the serious implacable gaze.
  19. fickle
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    Beyond, paying no more attention to him than to a stranger, the gang had gathered round T.; Blackie was dimly aware of the fickleness of favour.
  20. altruistic
    showing unselfish concern for the welfare of others
    Driven by the pure, simple, and altruistic ambition of fame for the gang, Blackie came back to where T. stood in the shadow of Misery’s wall.
  21. lumber
    move heavily or clumsily
    Blackie lumbered nearer with the saw and the sledge-hammer.
  22. parquet
    a floor made of a patterned wood inlay
    In the same room Joe was heaving up the parquet blocks, exposing the soft wood floor-boards over the cellar.
  23. shambles
    a condition of great disorder
    The kitchen was a shambles of broken glass and china.
  24. provisions
    a stock or supply of foods
    Mike said, ‘I’ve got to go home for dinner.’
    ‘Who else?’ T. asked, but all the others on one excuse or another had brought provisions with them.
  25. pillage
    steal goods; take as spoils
    The doors were all off, all the skirtings raised, the furniture pillaged and ripped and smashed – no one could have slept in the house except on a bed of broken plaster.
  26. estuary
    the wide part of a river where it nears the sea
    Two were missing – Mike and another boy, whose parents were off to Southend and Brighton in spite of the slow warm drops that had begun to fall and the rumble of thunder in the estuary like the first guns of the old blitz.
  27. restive
    impatient especially under restriction or delay
    Summers was restive. ‘Haven’t we done enough?’ he said. ‘I’ve been given a bob for slot machines. This is like work.’
  28. joist
    a beam used to support a floor or ceiling
    They began again on the first floor picking up the top floor-boards next the outer wall, leaving the joists exposed. Then they sawed through the joists and retreated into the hall, as what was left of the floor heeled and sank.
  29. facade
    the front of a building
    Yet walls could be preserved. Façades were valuable. They could build inside again more beautifully than before.
  30. rheumatic
    of or pertaining to arthritis
    ‘Oh, my rheumatics,’ he said. ‘Always get ’em on Bank Holiday. I’ve got to go careful. There’s loose stones here. Give me your hand...'
  31. parable
    a short moral story
    'They speak in parables and double meanings.’
  32. dither
    an excited state of agitation
    ‘Let me out,’ he called, and heard the key turn in the lock. ‘A serious crash,’ he thought, and felt dithery and confused and old.
  33. mortar
    plaster with a bond in masonry or for covering a wall
    With nails, chisels, screwdrivers, anything that was sharp and penetrating they moved around the inner walls worrying at the mortar between the bricks.
  34. swathe
    an enveloping cloth or bandage
    ‘Here’s a blanket,’ the voice said, and a long grey sausage was worked through the hole and fell in swathes over Mr Thomas’s head.
  35. rebuke
    censure severely or angrily
    Mr Thomas tried one more yell, but he was daunted and rebuked by the silence – a long way off an owl hooted and made away again on its muffled flight through the soundless world.
Created on Thu Mar 08 09:29:14 EST 2018 (updated Fri Mar 23 15:37:42 EDT 2018)

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