The quiet American door Graham Greene

Author:

Graham Greene

Title:

The quiet American

Title-explanation:
The quiet American => Pyle was an American diplomat. In the beginning everybody thought he was a very silent,
a very quiet person. But not only Pyle's character is quiet, his acting is also quiet, sneeky. Nobody knows
what he is really doing in Vietnam and nobody knows he's working together with general Thé, who is helping
a  'Third Force'. Only Fowler has descovered the secret of Pyle; that he is transporting bombs and uses them.
So the title is completely refursing to Pyle.

Publisher:

Wolters-Noordhoff BV => the Blackbirds of 1999, number 3

Date of publication:

1999

Date of first publication:

1955

Summary:

A British reporter, Fowler, has left his wife and lives in Saigon during the French-Vietnamese war with a Chinese woman, Phuong, while his wife is still in the UK. An American diplomat, Pyle, arrives who has read some books about China and has some nave ideas on influencing the course of events. The diplomat falls in love with Phuong who, after some time starts to live with him, because he promises to marry her. Fowler wants to marry her too, but he can't because he has got a wife in the UK and she doesn't want do divorce him.
They have a great argue about it, but at the end Phuong chooses for the one who can offer her a future: Pyle. Pyle gets involved in local underground war-activities (supporting a 'Third force') and people say that's the main reason he came to Vietnam. This leads to the killing of innocent people. As Fowler discovers these activities, he is so much worried and annoyed, that he helps his private Chinese relations to have Pyle killed, despite the fact that Pyle has saved his life during a nightly trip near Saigon. It is with this murder that the book begins. Alternatively, events before and after the murder are described. In the end Fowlers wife accepts a divorce and Fowler can marry Phuong.

Characters:

Fowler:
A British reporter. He is the one telling us al the things that happen;
he is a British reporter who came to Vietnam because of the war with France. But he loves it there and he finds a woman,
Phuong that he really loves, despite his wife in the UK. He is trying to report the war, without getting to much involved.
But at the end he has to choose: do nothing and see innocent people die, or do something.

Pyle:

He is an American diplomat, and nobody really knows why he is in Vietnam. Fowler thinks he's very naive,
but Pyle knows what he's doing. He falls in love with Phuong, Fowlers mistress, after a short but friendly fight about her.
He believes in the book of York Harding, "The advance of red China", wich suggests that Vietnam needs a "third force"
And that's why he acts that way: he helps with a bombing where innocent people died, because he wants to help
that 'Third Force' (wich in real history is: the USA).

Setting:

The whole story is in Vietnam. There are all kinds of political tensions and still people who are fighting.
Pyle is their because of political and economical targets, and Fowler is their because he's a journalist and reports about
the fights.

Point of view:

It's an omniscient narrator. Someone who is not in the book, but knows everything about it, tells the story
Fowler: his feelings, thoughts, and events

Theme:

1. War => the story is situated in the war in Vietnam, between the French and the Vietnam.
2. Love/relationships => Pyle and Fowler are fighting about a Vietnamese girl named Phuong. But Pyle and Fowler
    have also a relationship; they are friends.
3. Involvement in the war => Fowler is trying not the get involved; he doesn't want to pic sides. And he's repeatingly
    saying that. But eventually he does pic a side.

Genre:

Political novel

Writer's biography:

Graham Greene is born in 1904 and studied at Oxfort University. He joined the Roman Catholic church in 1926.
He was a novelist, playwrite and he wrote short stories, books of reportages, children's books etc. He wrote
autobiographic, geographically, about moral dilemma (personal/religion/political), about good-or-evil and liked
to write thrillers and detective stories. He died in 1991.