The Tenth Man

THE TENTH MAN BY GRAHAM GREENE

The Tenth Man by Graham Greene

The book The Tenth Man by Graham Greene takes place in France

in the 1940s during

the German occupation of France during the second world war. It starts

of in a German prison

with the narrator talking about the prisoners singling out two specific

characters, the Mayor of

Bourge and Pierre an engine driver. Through a situation concerning these

two we are introduced

to the main character, Jean-Louis Chavel who changes his last name to

Charlot. The narrator

goes on to describe who the prisoner can here executions ever night. One

night a German was

killed so for punishment three prisoners were to be killed from each

shed. To be fair the cell

where the story starts the men drew marked paper from a shoe. Chavel

drew the last marked

slip which condemned him to death and went into histeria. In his

histeria he offered to give every

thing he owned to someone if they died for him. A man named Janvier,

thinking of his sister and

mother, spoke up and took his offer. After the agreement Janvier drew up

a will leaving

everything he now owned to his sister and mother. The next morning he

was executed. The

story

then shifts to months later in Paris where Chavel, who name has been

changed to Charlot, is

looking for a job since he gave every thing he had away. Charlot then

returned to his old home

where he meets Janviers's sister and mother. Because Janvier's sister,

Therese, did not now

who he relay was, she gave him a job because he knew her brother. While

working at the

house Charlot had several run-ins with many childhood and adult friends

but managed to fool

them in some way or a another. Later, a beggar comes along and acts as

if he is the real Chavel

to escape persecution for being a collaborator with the Germans during

the occupation.

vividly he explains the whole story pretty well and convinces Therese

that he is the real Chavel.

Charlot allows him to stay the night and finds out he knew the story and

what he wanted. As a

plan to get all the land and money that Therese got from her brother, the

impostor Chavel

convinces Therese that Charlot made him look bad and her brother proposed

the deal to him.

While proving that the impostor was infact an impostor Charlot w...

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...was Charlot. He did so so that Therese

would not find out that

he was responsible for her brother' demise. In the end it back fired and

caused more problems

then it solved. Many people do not tell important information of

themselves to other people so

it does not cause friction between them or others. One main example of

this is when applying

for a job you are asked if you were ever arrested. Many people lie and

say no so they get the

job but lying causes them to not get the job because the employer will

find out one way or

another.

One moral that was not given right out in the open but could

be received indirectly

was about war. I think the author was for war if the cause was a fair

one as was World War

2. This is still an area of controversy today. In all the wars we have

fought since WW2 we

have

questioned if it was really necessary. I believe that you should not be

forced to fight in any war

that you do not believe that we should be fighting in as a nation

The book portrayed many morals that society of today needs

to learn. If society

learns these morals this place will be a very better place to live of

everyone and everything.