Realism And Colonialism In The Quiet American By Graham Greene

The Quiet American by Graham Greene Graham Greene’s fascinating novel The Quiet American is about two men who fall in love with the same women in Vietnam during the French and Indochina War. The protagonist, Thomas Fowler, and another English journalist, Alden Pyle, both shared a love for Phuong. The author of this novel, Graham Greene, wrote many stories that dealt with American and English involvement in foreign wars. Being born in Berkhamsted Hertfordshire, England, Graham suffered from bipolar disorder which began at age six, when he attempted to kill himself while enrolled at Berkhamsted School (Snodgrass). Graham attended psychological counseling before entering Balliol College, Oxford University, to study history (Snodgrass). In the early 1950s, Graham reported from Saigon to Le Figaro and the Sunday Times on the French colonial war. This became the source of his novel The Quiet American which was published in December 1955(Snodgrass). The Quiet American takes place in Saigon in the 1950s, when the French are losing control of the farthest outpost of their incursion into colonialism (Snodgrass). Communism has taken root in the struggle against European colonizers struggle for power …show more content…
Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American reflects social conflicts today by demonstrating the characteristics of democratic idealism and the reality of its effects, the cultural expectations and practices of women, and limitations of the media in foreign nations through the representation of Pyle’s fight for democracy, Phuong everyday life, and Fowler’s