GRAHAM GREENE: THE QUIET AMERICAN

An eerily prophetic and deeply disturbing book, Graham Greene’s The Quiet American is ostensibly the story of a love triangle involving a naive American spook, a jaded English journalist and a young Vietnamese girl. Lurking just beneath the surface is an allegory for the whole experience of America in Vietnam. This is one of the rare instances that literature was able to predict history with some degree of accuracy. The Quiet American is a terrifying portrait of innocence at large. While the French Army in Indo-China is grappling with the Vietnam, back at Saigon a young and high-minded American begins to channel economic aid to a ‘Third Force’. Fowler, a seasoned foreign correspondent, observes: “I never knew a man who has better motives for all the trouble he caused.” As young Pyle’s policies blunder on into bloodshed, the older man finds it impossible to stand aside as an observer. But Fowler’s motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and to himself : for Pyle has robbed him of his Vietnamese mistress. The present critical study seeks to examine and analyse the text along with related critical problems from the viewpoint of university examination. Shakti Batra has been Vice-Principal, Dyal Singh College (University of Delhi). He has also taught at the Kabul University and the International university of Kyrgyzstan,, Bishkek as well as students from the Tibetan Public Service Commission, Dharamsala, and Kiyushu University, Japan. An eerily prophetic and deeply disturbing book, Graham Greene’s The Quiet American is ostensibly the story of a love triangle involving a naive American spook, a jaded English journalist and a young Vietnamese girl. Lurking just beneath the surface is an allegory for the whole experience of America in Vietnam. This is one of the rare instances that literature was able to predict history with some degree of accuracy. The Quiet American is a terrifying portrait of innocence at large. While the French Army in Indo-China is grappling with the Vietnam, back at Saigon a young and high-minded American begins to channel economic aid to a ‘Third Force’. Fowler, a seasoned foreign correspondent, observes: “I never knew a man who has better motives for all the trouble he caused.” As young Pyle’s policies blunder on into bloodshed, the older man finds it impossible to stand aside as an observer. But Fowler’s motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and to himself : for Pyle has robbed him of his Vietnamese mistress. The present critical study seeks to examine and analyse the text along with related critical problems from the viewpoint of university examination. Shakti Batra has been Vice-Principal, Dyal Singh College (University of Delhi). He has also taught at the Kabul University and the International university of Kyrgyzstan,, Bishkek as well as students from the Tibetan Public Service Commission, Dharamsala, and Kiyushu University, Japan.

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