The Quiet American Study Guide

Thomas Fowler is a British reporter in his late fifties. He is covering the war in Vietnam in 1952, in which the French armies are fighting against the Communist Vietminh. The story opens with Fowler in his rooms over the rue Catinat in Saigon. He is with his beautiful young lover Phuong. They have been together for several years, yet mysteriously she is engaged to marry Alden Pyle. Pyle is a thirty-two year old American who works for the Economic Aid Mission. (read more)