All the Characters in the Quiet American Are Victims in One Way or Another. Discuss.
All of the main characters in The Quiet American are victims in some way or another. Discuss.
Throughout his novel The Quiet American Graham Greene successfully portrays a variety of themes, such as political conflict, loneliness, love, innocence and betrayal. Greene’s clever characterisations allow the audience into a world of heated atmosphere and interactions of contrasting emotions. He puts his characters into varied roles of the victim. Whether they are a foreign diplomat or a taxi dancer, the characters in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American all exhibit some form of victimisation.
Phuong could be seen as a victim from the western society’s perspective. This is a result of the relationships she has with both Fowler and Pyle. Fowler sacrifices Phuong’s happiness and her future by being instrumental in Pyle’s murder. He does it in an almost utilitarian fashion, and then later goes through some self-reproach “what right had I to value her less than the dead bodies in the square”, because of Fowler “she will never see America”. Fowler’s cause is an allegiance to humanitarianism and moral objectivity. In sense, she is a victim because she is denied the ‘charmed life’ that she might have had with Pyle, although this of course could be seen from an another point of view – where Fowler is possibly saving Phuong from a life of boredom and listlessness. It can also be argued that she is in control, up to a point – she has Pyle and Fowler at her beck and call. Therefore, she may not be a victim at all. She is happy with her life, and any other Vietnamese girl would consider her life to be one of the better ones to have.
Pyle can be seen as both the powerful and powerless individual. Pyle willingly sacrifices the individuality, along with the general welfare of the Vietnamese he is ironically attempting to protect by enforcing democracy through his “Third Force” – this is the sense in which Pyle can be possibly seen as the powerful individual, and the peasants
Throughout his novel The Quiet American Graham Greene successfully portrays a variety of themes, such as political conflict, loneliness, love, innocence and betrayal. Greene’s clever characterisations allow the audience into a world of heated atmosphere and interactions of contrasting emotions. He puts his characters into varied roles of the victim. Whether they are a foreign diplomat or a taxi dancer, the characters in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American all exhibit some form of victimisation.
Phuong could be seen as a victim from the western society’s perspective. This is a result of the relationships she has with both Fowler and Pyle. Fowler sacrifices Phuong’s happiness and her future by being instrumental in Pyle’s murder. He does it in an almost utilitarian fashion, and then later goes through some self-reproach “what right had I to value her less than the dead bodies in the square”, because of Fowler “she will never see America”. Fowler’s cause is an allegiance to humanitarianism and moral objectivity. In sense, she is a victim because she is denied the ‘charmed life’ that she might have had with Pyle, although this of course could be seen from an another point of view – where Fowler is possibly saving Phuong from a life of boredom and listlessness. It can also be argued that she is in control, up to a point – she has Pyle and Fowler at her beck and call. Therefore, she may not be a victim at all. She is happy with her life, and any other Vietnamese girl would consider her life to be one of the better ones to have.
Pyle can be seen as both the powerful and powerless individual. Pyle willingly sacrifices the individuality, along with the general welfare of the Vietnamese he is ironically attempting to protect by enforcing democracy through his “Third Force” – this is the sense in which Pyle can be possibly seen as the powerful individual, and the peasants