With the assistance of Vietnam Communist agents, Fowler works to eliminate Pyle, the American. Likewise, in the Communists’ plan for political seizure of power, the first step requires eliminating social democrats and liberals (Gorham-Davis).

All you can do is control them or eliminate them” (PAGE Greene). You can’t blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. According to Fowler, “innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm. Ultimately, this causes issues when people begin to assume that such simple solutions can solve such difficult problems, such as Pyle’s idea to establish a third force.Īdditionally, Greene also emphasizes the fear of innocence throughout the novel. Throughout the novel Fowler attempts to explain that too much thinking outside the box ultimately leads to thinking of difficult realities as simple facts. Pyle believes that a democracy would help but Fowler insists otherwise. Their different ways lead to their different opinions on how to solve Vietnam’s problem. This serves as an example that differentiates Pyle from Fowler. While Pyle prefers to learn from books, Fowler chooses to learn by gaining all of the concrete facts. On a more personal note, Fowlers commentary on the letter from his ex-wife makes sense using both people and countries interchangeably (Smith). In a broader scheme, Fowler disapproves of American liberals who attempt to bring their textbook notions of freedom and democracy into Asia. For instance, better understanding Fowler means better understanding his political thoughts. This includes personal motivations since they appear linked to political opinions. Every thought relates to politics in one way or another. Throughout the novel, there is a recurring theme about the insufficiency of theoretical thinking relating to the politics during the 1950’s. Along with various political agendas, the idea of establishing a third force against communists and French colonials plays an important role in Greene’s portrayal of the foreign policy struggles. However, unlike many of his other writings, the “effect of circumstances is specifically ideological and political” in this novel (Gorham-Davis). He set the novel in Vietnam, which, at the time was experiencing a rising local insurgency against the French Colonial rule (Iyer).

In 1955, Greene published his novel, The Quiet American. Shortly after that he published his first work, a book of verse. While in college, Greene converted to Roman Catholicism. After a difficult childhood, Greene studied at Ballion College in Oxford (Gorham-Davis). Graham Greene, a famous English novelist was born in 1904.

Quiet american book