Dec 22, 2009

The Quiet American | Social Concerns

Like many of Greene's spy, or espionage, novels, The Quiet American is concerned with the effect the superpowers have when they intervene in the politics of the developing nations, in this case, Vietnam during the last days of French colonial rule. Greene himself is in an interesting position in that England, once a major colonial power, has increasingly surrendered that position to the United States since World War II; as the British character Fowler says to the American Pyle, "We're the old colonials." This weakened position makes Greene, like Fowler, something of an observer of...