Summary:
Discusses the Graham Greene work, "The Quiet American." Analyzes the character of Pyle. Describes how he dies because of his virtues, his innocence and idealism.
"The Quiet American" exemplifies how the ideas of 'good' and 'bad' are closely interwoven. The duality of innocence and corruption, idealism and reality is mainly personified in Pyle and Fowler. The character of Pyle illustrates how one's innocence protects one from the horrors of war. After the attack in the Pavilion, in which Pyle's shoes were covered by civilians' blood, to which he innocently queried "what's that"" Here, the contrast between Pyle's naivety and Fowler's moral rectitude is striking. To Fowler, Pyle "was seeing the real war for the first time...Phat Diem was a school boy dream" Hence, when blind idealism is coupled with innocence, it leads to destruction. Pyle aims to recreate Vietnamese society along the lines of York Harding's theory without contemplating the social and political situation of a society that has been steeped.....
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