Graham Greene's "The Quiet American"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" provides an account of the activities of a well-intentioned, but misguided and naive American government agent in Vietnam during the midst of the anti-French uprising there in the early 1950s. It discusses the book from an existentialist perspective to illustrate how U.S. foreign policy has been woefully inadequate over the years, being based on a fundamental lack of understanding about other cultures, and a disregard for how the world really works. A summary of the research is provided in the conclusion.

From the Paper:

"According to Greene, Fowler's own background and experience with colonialism and its impact on the nations involved helped him to better understand the importance of recognizing and respecting how things worked in other countries, and how the indigenous people actually lived and what they wanted in life: "The morning Pyle arrived in the square by the Continental, I had seen enough of my American colleagues of the press, big, noisy, boyish and middle-aged, full of sour cracks against the French, who were, when all was said, fighting this war" (1992:20). Pyle is an ardent follower of an American political theorist, York Harding, author of The Advance of Red China and other such works about Asia (Freely, 2001). Fowler says that he was to learn later than Pyle's respect and admiration for Harding was to the virtual total exclusion of "novelists, poets, and dramatists unless they had what he called a contemporary theme, and even then it was better to read the straight stuff as you got it from York" (21)."

More papers on Graham Greene's "The Quiet American":

• Analytical Essay # 73382 : "Graham Green'es "The Quiet American"
• Book Review # 91565 : "The Quiet American"
• Book Review # 128738 : "Desire and Colonialism: "The Quiet American"

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