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Essay
Title
The Quiet American
Author
Graham Greene
Works Cited
Greene, Graham
...
Penguin Books, 1962
...
The Quiet American is a book written by Graham Greene
...
Alden Pyle, an American citizen working for the
American government, also stationed in Saigon, befriends Fowler after Fowler helps Pyle learn and
understand more about the country of Vietnam
...
One of the main themes in the
book is innocence, which is what this essay will revolve around and discuss
...
Fowler had learnt that Pyle was determined to do
great deeds with his actions, not to an individual, but to a country, a continent or a world
...
Harding has
written about democracy and mentions a “third force” in Vietnam, which is most likely the local
Vietnamese citizens fighting for democracy in their country
...
” (Greene 36)
...
A lost bell is most
likely a metaphor about a person who does not have self-awareness regarding their actions, which
is why Pyle is the “dumb leper” who is wandering the world, meaning no harm, but is still blind to
the consequences of his actions
...
While Pyle’s intentions are good, his actions
are only meant to support his own ideals and objectives, which is why his actions lead to destruction
and chaos
...
Pyle planted the bomb at the request of General Thé, who he believes is the
“third force”, and by doing this, lost his innocence
...
All you can do is
control them or eliminate them
...
” (Greene 162)
...
Since Pyle had, with good intentions, followed a request from General Thé, Pyle was still
innocent, even after bombing the market and murdering innocent citizens according to Fowler
...
Even after
Pyle had bombed the market, he still believed that General Thé was innocent: “He said, ‘Thé
wouldn’t have done this
...
Somebody deceived him
...
(Greene 162)
...
It is revealed that Fowler was behind Pyle’s death at the end of the book
...
When Fowler was questioned about Pyle’s
murder, he answered: “They killed him because he was too innocent to live
...
He had no more of a notion than any of you what the whole
affair’s about” (Greene 31)
...
If Pyle were to represent something, it would be idealism, especially American idealism
...
However, the
irony is that through the manipulation of his innocence, Pyle’s actions have achieved the exact
opposite of this, and have technically turned him into a mass-murderer, which is arguably one of
the worst evil acts that exist
...
The Quiet American does an excellent job at showing how the characteristic of innocence can be
many different things and how it is not always a good characteristic to have, as many people believe
it is
...
Even though all of Pyle’s actions were done with a good intent, they eventually
led to destruction and mass-murder, and Pyle became the ultimate example of how much
destruction innocence can cause the world