1. The main topic of this reading is Graham Greene’s book, The Quiet American. The author of the article, Kevin Ruane, is focused on analyzing Graham Greene’s book as a historical document and works to unravel the possible implications from analyzing the book as a historical document.
2. The main argument that the author makes is to assert that Greene’s book is more truth than fantasy. The author asserts that by looking at the situations of the characters in the book, Greene’s book is a reflection of his experiences in Vietnam with the central tension of the book based on real situations, down to the America’s plan for a Third Force plot against the French. To that end, the author argues that the British, along with the Americans, were working …show more content…
When I first read this article, I was incredibly confused. I did not know what the purpose of this article was. The article as a whole reads as a timeline of the Vietnam war. However, after reading the article multiple times, I now understand that the author was making a more nuanced argument compared to other articles I’ve read. The author name drops a lot of different sources, but in the end, the main objective of the source is to establish The Quiet American as a historical source. To accomplish that, the author has to establish the relationship between the events in The Quiet American and Greene’s own life. This is also the reason why the author spends a lot of time establishing where Greene was before, during and after his trips to Vietnam as well as listing possible motives for his trips to Vietnam. Once I realized how nuanced the argument was, I was able to grasp the main idea of the article. However, I wish I had more background information regarding Greene’s book since much of his analysis was based on the book. Also, I wish the subsections of this article were more organized because the subsections would introduce multiple ideas and multiple subjects, which made this source confusing to read and follow. The author goes into so much detail in his sub sections and I had a hard time finding his main
2. The main argument that the author makes is to assert that Greene’s book is more truth than fantasy. The author asserts that by looking at the situations of the characters in the book, Greene’s book is a reflection of his experiences in Vietnam with the central tension of the book based on real situations, down to the America’s plan for a Third Force plot against the French. To that end, the author argues that the British, along with the Americans, were working …show more content…
When I first read this article, I was incredibly confused. I did not know what the purpose of this article was. The article as a whole reads as a timeline of the Vietnam war. However, after reading the article multiple times, I now understand that the author was making a more nuanced argument compared to other articles I’ve read. The author name drops a lot of different sources, but in the end, the main objective of the source is to establish The Quiet American as a historical source. To accomplish that, the author has to establish the relationship between the events in The Quiet American and Greene’s own life. This is also the reason why the author spends a lot of time establishing where Greene was before, during and after his trips to Vietnam as well as listing possible motives for his trips to Vietnam. Once I realized how nuanced the argument was, I was able to grasp the main idea of the article. However, I wish I had more background information regarding Greene’s book since much of his analysis was based on the book. Also, I wish the subsections of this article were more organized because the subsections would introduce multiple ideas and multiple subjects, which made this source confusing to read and follow. The author goes into so much detail in his sub sections and I had a hard time finding his main