The Evils of Human Motivation

The Evils of Human Motivation

Graham Greene’s The Quiet American is set in Saigon, Vietnam in the early 1950’s during the end of the First Indochina War. It portrays two simultaneous conflicts: one regarding the political turmoil of the growing American involvement that led to the Vietnam War, and also the romantic triangle between the Fowler, Pyle and Phuong. Each main character is involved in the war on their own levels. Fowler is involved mostly as an observer, while Pyle is more directly more involved on a number of levels with the American government. Phoung is just a native of her country Vietnam to bring the two together. Greene draws parallels between Pyle’s conduct and America’s overall policies in Vietnam, connecting all his characters to be involved in the war in someway.

The setting of Vietnam during the French war is one of the most essential aspects of The Quiet American. Greene does an excellent job of describing Vietnam not only as a physical country but also as a culture. In many ways, the setting is what makes the story transpire. In around 1945, things began to fall apart in Saigon. British troops were looked at to be much more understanding than Americans (Jamieson 197).So by creating a character from Britain was a perfect option for Greene to show someone as an observer in the war. He created Powel, a British journalist in his late middle age, whom lived in Vietnam for a number of years. “My fellow journalists called themselves correspondents; I preferred the title of reporter. I wrote what I saw. I took no action-even an opinion is a kind of action” (Greene 22). This shows he prides himself on having no opinions and not taking sides, but instead he believes himself to be a true journalist who only observes. Nothing can get to him, or so he thinks.

In many ways, however, Fowler is not a disconnected observer but a hypercritical pessimist. He has an active death wish.

“We are fools, I said, when we love. I was terrified

of loosing her. I thought I saw her changing-I don’t

know if she really was, but I couldn’t bear the

uncertainty any longer. I ran towards the finish just

like a coward runs towards the enemy and wins a