In the following essay, Feldmann explores a Western civilization approach to history in the context of Greene's "The Destructors."

Although Graham Greene considers himself primarily a novelist "who has happened to write short stories," he nevertheless believes that he has "never written anything better than 'The Destructors'." Written in 1954, the story tells of an exploit by the Wormsley Common Gang, a group of London youths who under the leadership of a fifteen year old boy demolish in two days a house that had been built by Christopher Wren. What is most perplexing about the story is its tone: the omniscient narrator, curiously uninvolved in the tale he is telling, provides the reader with no clue as to how he should respond to the destruction of the house. Carefully planned by Trevor, the story's protagonist, it seems to be neither a wanton nor a malicious act. The last...