The Quiet American

The greatest recognition Graham Greene gained with the appearance of his "The Quiet American" (1955). The novel is mostly political, and it brings forward one of the most important problems in the literature of our days — the problem of choice. For the first time Greene strongly condemns the dirty laws of colonialism; presents the real truth of the American colonial policy.

The events in the novel occur in Vietnam. It helps to reveal the horrors of colonialism. The "Quiet American", Pyle, is officially employed in the Econom­ic Aid Mission, but his real duty is to organize differ­ent acts of sabotage and provocations. Pyle's image is drawn with great truth and very vividly. He even wins the reader's sympathy at first: "Age thirty-two, [...] with his gangly legs and his crew-cut and his wide campus

gaze he seemed incapable of harm". He is strong and handsome, but he committs a great crime against the Vietnamese people. He is a "culprit". Such words as "grenades", "death", "crime", "bombs" are associated with Pyle's activity. He is doing a lot of harm but is always sure of being right. His antagonist is Fowler, an English newspaper correspondent. Fowler is not young, he is tired, and he is unhappy in his private life: "But I looked cautiously at Phuong, [...] hadn't she been fond of me and hadn't she left me for Pyle? She had attached herself to youth and hope...." His credo is not to get involved in anything, he stays neutral at first. Fowler reports only what he sees, trying to be indifferent to everything: "Once I was interested myself in what for want of a better term they call news. But grenades had staled on me." But sooner or later one has to make a choice, and Fowler makes it. Step by step, coming into contact with the "filthy war", he can't help giving a hand to the patriots of Vietnam: he betrays Pyle to the Vietnamese guerrillas: "— He's got to be stopped. [...]

— Would you be prepared to help us, Mr Fowler?

— He comes blundering in and people have to die
for his mistakes. I wish your people had got him on
the river from Nam Dinh. It would have made a lot
of difference to a lot of lives."

Graham Greene truthfully describes the develop­ment of an average English man who begins to under­stand political injustice. Furthermore, with Pyle out of the game, Fowler and Phuong come to an understand­ing again.

For Graham Greene the essential human tragedy lies in the gap between what man wants and what he is able to get.

James Aldridge (1918)

James Aldridge was born in 1918 on the Island of Man near Scotland, in, the family of an English writer. He spent his youth in Australia, then came to England in the 1930's for the higher education, studied at Oxford and became a war correspondent.

He travelled a lot; he visited almost every corner of the front: Egypt, Greece, Spain, Iran. He spent almost a year in the Soviet Union (1944— 1945). "Signed with Their Honour" (1942), "The Sea Eagle" (1944), "Of Many Men" (1946) were of great importance among the novels of the war time. These books were the first record of the sufferings and hard­ships of millions of people fighting for their freedom and independence.

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