How Does Greene Present The Conflict In The Quiet American

In The Quiet American, Graham Greene develops characters, which are used to symbolize different countries during the Vietnam War. He includes Alden Pyle, who is American, Thomas Fowler, who is British, and Phuong, who is Vietnamese. Greene depicts his perspective on the events of the war through the main characters, which allow him to convey the conflict. The story revolves around the war, both directly, through Pyle and Fowler’s conversations, and also indirectly through a complex love triangle. The romantic tension between Pyle and Fowler, with regards to Phuong, nicely draw parallels between the conflicting views of the English and Americans in regards to Vietnam.
The story opens up with Fowler, the protagonist, who is an English journalist. Fowler is portrayed as older man who, through his experience, has grown to be very straight-forward and almost slightly bitter with regards to Pyle. Unlike, Pyle who is new, young, and fresh, Fowler has seen things; he draws his understanding of the world from his own experiences. Fowler is composed of the ideology, why trouble yourself when you do not have too.

Pyle is new. He is young. He is excited. However, with such a blank slate comes immaturity. His inexperience leaves him vulnerable because unlike Fowler who has gone through so much, Pyle is drawing his understanding of the world from his research. Pyle, has seen what has worked for America and he studies what will work from credited sources. However, Pyle does not slow down and look at his surroundings. He does not seem to be turned into the true needs of the Vietnamese people. Rather, he tends to try to push onto them the ways that he feels are best instead of assessing the situation and discovering what will best benefit each civilian. Pyle is instilled with this new profound American strength and dignity that drives him to seek power and authority. This causes tension between the two central