Personal Battles within Characters in a Novel

In Graham Greene's The Quiet American, Greene uses the characters Alden Pyle, Thomas Fowler, and Phuong to represent a greater picture and show how the characters all work through mental obstacles. Their political doctrines actively collide and merge with the cultural customs they bring with them to the novel. The result is that these characters have a double meaning. They become allegorical for the larger world events around them, symbolizing Greene's opinions of the politics of empire-building. In the interactions among these characters, Greene is simplifying the situation in Vietnam by using a social perspective and relating how intertwined the characters and their homelands are during the war.

Graham Greene developed the attitudes and personalities of his characters almost to be a condensed legend of the countries they represented. In their actions, and opinions formed on them by others, there was a reflection of the general feeling overall in Vietnam. Alden Pyle is the quiet one it seems because he is the neutral party, America, coming to aid Vietnam by selling plastic. He has a good reputation, and is very proper. Naïve is best to superficially describe his demeanor; he is only trying to help. But ignorance is probably better to this character for he does not realize the destruction he is causing and does not realize that he is more meddlesome than helpful. And that is exactly what Graham Greene is trying to portray this character's representation of the United States. Pyle as an individual reflects America as a whole as the country was seen trying to interfere in Vietnam, by claiming to be neutral. America is hurting the chances Pyle has with anything because his country keeps promising things to the Vietnamese and creati...

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...omeone who is not thinking clearly can be. Pyle tries to help and risks the lives of other people instead of putting themselves first. Greene does not glorify being a bystander like Fowler either though. He shows us that someone has to act in order to save the day and save lives. He makes sure that the reader does not feel too sorry for Fowler when he is stuck in between Phuong and Pyle because he did not seem to try hard enough in his relationship with his wife or when he had Phuong attached to his hip. Inaction is as despicable a reaction to conflict as action. Greene makes it clear at the end of the novel that people just have to take care of themselves and what they need to do in order to survive in the world. Whatever they decide determines their futures and their relationships.

Works Cited

Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. New York: Viking, 1956. Print.