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The Ugly American Study Guide

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by William J. Lederer
About 90 pages (26,845 words)
The Ugly American Summary

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Parables

The Ugly American is an unusual novel in that there is only a loose connection between all the different episodes. The only semblance of a unified plot is in Ambassador Gilbert MacWhite's gradual accumulation of the knowledge about how to win the struggle against communism. Each story serves as a parable, illustrating either the folly of U.S. behavior and policy or a positive alternative. According to M. H. Abrams, a parable is “a short narrative presented so as to stress the tacit but detailed analogy between its component parts and a thesis or lesson that the narrator is trying to bring home to us.” Thus in the first story, of “Lucky” Lou Sears, every detail contributes to the theme of the book: Americans in foreign service are not performing their jobs in a way.....

This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 895 words. This study guide contains 26,845 words (approx. 89 pages at 300 words per page).

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The Ugly American from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.

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