The Quiet American Love Essay

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Max Muller once stated “A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.” Muller is getting at a fundamental human desire. Love is a critical part of life; a powerful force, it is capable of bringing both immense joy and ghastly destruction. A compelling desire, love often drives one’s actions. The euphoric effect that love has on people will frequently cause one to engage in a relationship with someone else in the hope that they may provide love. However, this relationship is occasionally rushed or may occur for deceitful reasons. As a result, this ‘love’ may often be superficial. A superb example of this danger occurs in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American. The Quiet American is a novel about the Vietnam War featuring a murder mystery in the midst of romantic warfare. The protagonist, Thomas Fowler, and antagonist, Alden Pyle, are competing for the love of Phuong, a native. Fowler, the European, is a broke reporter of whom has been living with Phuong for two years. Pyle, an American espionage agent, goes under the cover of being an…show more content…
Although markedly naïve, Pyle is considerably more righteous than Fowler. His intentions for their relationship are unadulterated, as can be seen when Pyle tells Fowler “I want to give her a decent life.” However, his naivety poses a problem. Pyle decides to pursue Phuong despite not knowing anything about her. To complicate the matter, there exists a substantial language barrier between the two as well. Pyle makes the assumption that he understands what she wants based on his concept and opinion of the Vietnamese. Due to Pyle’s inability to properly communicate with Phuong it is apparent that he, like Fowler, is primarily interested in Phuong due to her beauty. Pyle has the intentions to get to know Phuong, but his interest in her is ignorant. Pyle does not truly care for Phuong, despite having admirable
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