In the following essay, Gorecki explores connections between "The Destructors" and Milton's Paradise Lost.

In the course of a study devoted to the historical and spiritual contexts of Graham Greene's short-story masterpiece, "The Destructors," John Ower has pointed out that it recalls the Judeo-Christian story of Satan's rebellion against God. No one, however, seems to have observed that this account of a gang's assault on a beautiful old house possesses numerous and striking similarities to the grand working out of that story in Milton's Paradise Lost. Greene has provided no explicit testimony that he thought of the epic in constructing his tale, but his evident preoccupation with evil throughout his works suggests his awareness of Milton's treatment of the theme, or at least of the traditions which lie behind Paradise Lost. It may well be that, as Milton enriched his epic through allusions to older literature, so...