He makes his big bang in Saigon by planting bombs the means to bring democracy the ends and thus stave off the communist menace and transform Vietnam into a US-style democracy. If one doubts the reality about Americans having this intensity of belief in our ability to export our order everywhere, read our more passionate op ed writers today who have recently discovered the cause of the Iraqi people and extol our government to go to war to "liberate" them. The fictional quiet American multiplied and became real protagonists in one of the bloodiest wars of the late 20th Century.
Always in the name of spreading democracy to Vietnam, the quiet Americans advocated ever more mass bombing of Vietnamese cities, dropping of napalm on its villages and people and the destruction of its vegetation through the application of Agent Orange. The Quiet American epitomized the young US officer in the late s who lamented to a reporter in all innocence that "we had to destroy the village in order to save it".
These chicken hawks eschew the lesson that Graham taught 50 years ago. The failure in Vietnam taught them nothing about the impossibility of exporting our order to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea or, well, you pick it. These missionary writers do not, of course, do the fighting. They also glide over some of the issues that make the constant repetition of the word democracy ring hollow.
A country where the majority of federal offices are uncontested? We want to spread this abroad? He goes native, smoking opium in the colonial tradition and also taking his pleasures from the young Vietnamese woman on whom he has become dependent emotionally.
She prepares his pipe and gives him pleasures. She demands little. He loves her. What she feels for him remains in the realm of the enigmatic. Ah, to be above the struggle, delicate and sensual, dignified and mysterious! The Quiet American, intent on changing Vietnam, must also change relationships.
But he has rules for both processes: taking the Vietnamese beauty from Fowler and forging his democratic third way between European colonialism and communism. Greene, the observer, asks implicitly in the book, what winning means in such a context. Since the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony, missionary zeal has led some Americans to spread "our way of life".
But the angry Puritan God has been replaced by the Baal of shopping. The modesty and humility our ancestors assumed before the power of God, has changed into bragging about how great we are - while we pop pills for stress of various kinds to those who have yet to hear or see the revealed word or image. To Pyle, the idea of Harding that neither communism nor colonialism is a way out for Vietnam and the third world nations, but a national democratic force under the guidance and aid of the Western nations such as United States of America can be the only solution for the politically volatile third world nations like Vietnam, is a workable idea.
Alden Pyle has graduated from Harvard University. He is idealistic in his views about life and reality as he has not seen the real world in its raw form. He is far removed from the pragmatic and practical things of life — he views things from the perspective of the books that he has encountered during his university days. Once Fowler points out to Pyle that it is easier for York Harding to talk about third force as he does not have to live in Vietnam and see the real world from its true perspective.
Even when he came to Vietnam he came for a week during his journey from Bangkok to Tokyo. Fowler says that people like York Harding first make a theory and then make everything fall into place by twisting the reality according to the need of the theory — these theories have no basis in reality.
Give me facts. Suddenly I saw myself as he saw me, a man of middle age, with eyes a little bloodshot, beginning to put on weight, ungraceful in love, less noisy than Granger perhaps but more cynical, less innocent, and I saw Phuong for a moment as I had seen her first, dancing past my table at the Grand Monde in a white ball-dress, eighteen years old, watched by an elder sister who had been determined on a good European marriage.
An American had bought a ticket and asked her for a dance: he was a little drunk—not harmfully, and I suppose he was new to the country and thought the hostesses of the Grand Monde were whores. He held her much too close as they went round the floor the first time, and then suddenly there she was, going back to sit with her sister, and he was left, stranded and lost among the dancers, not knowing what had happened or why.
I never knew a man who had better motives…. Do you? Anyway he keeps still. Their colonialism. Give me facts. They love you in return for kindness, security, the presents you give them—they hate you for a blow or an injustice. I prefer dry land.
I came east to be killed. I trusted you, Thomas. This is European duplicity, Pyle. We have to make up for our lack of supplies.
His eyes were out of sight. They were a good joke, even though one man did lose a foot. We know their kind. There it is on your shelf. Who is this York Harding? He killed Pyle—at long range. My sister will be so excited.
He was young. The Empire State Building. I thought of the first day and Pyle sitting beside me at the Continental, with his eye on the soda-fountain across the way. Everything had gone right with me since he had died, but how I wished there existed someone to whom I could say that I was sorry.
The Quiet American. Plot Summary. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts.
The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play. Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Teachers and parents! Struggling with distance learning? Themes All Themes. Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive.
Alden Pyle is young, highly idealistic, and romantic—the titular quiet American. Inspire to enact sweeping political change abroad, he joins the American Secret Service and travels to Vietnam. Pyle is often condescending to individual people, since he believes that ideas are more important than lives. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:. Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes.
Related Themes: Vietnam and the West. Page Number and Citation : 4 Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Related Themes: Inevitability of Death. Page Number and Citation : 13 Cite this Quote. Related Symbols: Alcohol and Opium. Related Themes: Friendship, Loyalty, and Betrayal. Page Number and Citation : 14 Cite this Quote.
Part 1, Chapter 2, Section 1 Quotes. George W Bush calls this 'Collateral damage', however, if you search images of My Lai a village that was pillaged by war-mad American soldiers , it's evident that the authorities such as Pyle and the real life Lieutenant Calley should never had the power they possessed.
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