The Quiet American

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Kristen Prevost Literary Analysis on The Quiet American “Men With Blood On Their Shoes” The Quiet American, by Graham Greene, takes place in Vietnam during the First Indochina War, when Vietnam was fighting to win their independence from the French. Throughout the text we follow two foreigners, an Englishman named Fowler and an American named Pyle, and their involvement in the war. The two characters meet, and through their interactions we are painted a picture of each of them and how “different” they seem to be. Fowler has come to Vietnam as a reporter, and he quickly makes it clear that he is there for that reason and that reason alone. “’I’m not involved, not involved’ I repeated. It had been an article of my creed. The human condition being what it was, let them fight, let them love, let them murder, I would not be involved. My fellow journalists called themselves correspondents; I preferred the title of reporter. I wrote what I saw. I took no action—even an opinion is a kind of action. (Greene 10) Greene constantly portrays Fowler as being detached from not only the war but also as a person in general. He seems to be a man who only enjoys physical comforts, such as smoking opium and having Phuong as a mistress even though back home he has a wife. He is portrayed as close-minded and old, yet experienced. We are led to believe that Fowler is quiet the opposite of his counterpart, Pyle. Pyle works for the American Aid Mission and, unlike Fowler, truly believed he was there to make a difference. “Pyle was absorbed already in the Dilemmas of Democracy and the responsibilities of the West; he was determined ... to do good, not to any individual person but to a country, a continent, a world. Well, he was in his element now with the whole universe to improve.” (Greene 18) He came to Vietnam with almost no knowledge of the war and yet believed he
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