Analysis Of The Book 'A Burnt-Out Case' By Graham Greene

A Burnt-Out Case Thesis Paper A person’s image can sometimes run their lives. There are many types of images that a person can try to uphold. This could be how they believe themselves to be, how the people closest to them believe them to be, and finally the outward image that the general public see them as. In A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene, Querry struggles to maintain true to his self image, while others believe that his image isn’t up to him, but rather the public opinion. Querry finds his own image too massive to handle, his fame essentially driving him to a meaningless existence. He loses his grasp on life from so many people expecting things from him due to his fame that he decides to stop listening to expectations and disappear from
He is constantly destroying people’s past perceptions or expectations of him. Parkinson, the reporter Querry sees as a mirror of himself, even exclaims, “You aren’t as simple-minded as you make out, Querry...” (Greene, 167) Constantly time and again, people's expectations of Querry and how he seemed to be from afar change as soon as he is allowed a word in. One of the people who create these expectations of Querry is Ryker, who never ceases to set Querry up to be more of a religious man than he is. He even calls Querry “the Querry” rather than just his name, because he believes that Querry’s fame is more important than Querry believes it is. From the first time they meet, to the very last time they meet, Ryker builds him up to be more important than Querry saw himself. At the end of the book, when Ryker believes that Querry had impregnated his wife, Ryker is beyond outraged, more than anything because he believes that a christian man such as Querry should never have been able to do such a thing. An exchange between the two starts with Ryker, “Nothing that I can say would ever anger the Querry, would it? He’s so infernally important, how could he care what the mere manager of a palm-oil factory- I’ve got an immortal soul just as much as you, Querry.” To which Querry replies, “I don’t make any claims to one. You can be God’s important man, Ryker, for all I care. I’m not the Querry to anyone but you.
Querry begins to be accused that his intentions were more than simple concerns for a leper but rather religious integrity. Somehow Querry’s retelling of what happened that night in the woods turned to him praying in the woods with Deo Gratias the entire night, the truth stretching far from what really happened. In the same way, although Querry built churches, he cared little for what was actually happening in those buildings. (Greene, 44) Regardless of this, people believe his intentions are pure and religious, even as he claims they aren’t. (Greene, 134) Querry tries and tries to set himself free from other people’s opinions of his actions, and time and time again no one believes him, his image is altered to their perception of him, never truly in his