The Silence of an American

Pyle also brings with him racist attitudes, or at the very least, a superior attitude because he is white, making it easy for him to ignore the nature of the Vietnamese spate and their trial for nationalism.

Author Graham Greene wrote The Quiet American base on his own experience as a diary keeper in Vietnam. He believed that Vietnamese of all political persuasions welcomed the french defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, but that the "movement was a nationalist one and just now Western clumsiness was oblige it to become Communist" (Atkins 228). What was a nationalist movement on the part of different groups of Vietnamese was turned into an ideological struggle by the interferences of the West on one hand, and the Communists on the other. The American government supported the south mainly as a means of holding back the Communists who had given ideology to the nationalism of the north.

Pyle's function is to carry out American policy by whatever means necessary. His knowledge of politics comes from theories, especially the tercet Force theory of his hero York Harding who, after spending a few days in Vietnam, postulated that "what the East needed was a third force," something different from French colonialism and Communism, the imposition of democracy on a country that just wanted independence and self-importance rule. But to people like Pyle, the concept of democracy outweighs the right field to self-

Gaston, George. The Pursuit of Salvation: A Critical Guide to

The self-serving General The goes ahead with a planned barrage fire even after learning that the think tar nabs would not be present. Pyle is shocked by the bloodshed of the killing and maiming, as well as by The's going ship with the bombing knowing that the military parade with the intended targets would not take place. He lacks, however, the depth of understanding to say anything to a greater extent than that The should have called the bombing off. He takes it all in tread as just another modest part of the bigger plan, and remarks he needs to clean the blood off his property before meeting the Minister.

Pyle's reaction is more detailed in the book than in the film that just shows him with bloodied shoes and a shocked expression. In the book, Pyle asks what the wet is on his shoes, and an set ond Fowler says, "blood." Fowler's motives in taking part in Pyle's later killing stems from his outrage at Pyle's ability to brush off the event. He cannot get the images of the dead out of his mind, and begins to understand he cannot maintain his neutrality. He later tells Pyle, "There's always a point of change," to which Pyle merrily replies, "You haven't reached it yet. I doubt if you ever will. And I'm not likely to change all - except in death." Fowler challenges Pyle by bringing up the morning's bombing of civilians uninvolved in the struggle. "Mightn't that change a man's vies?" But Pyle replies that, "they were only war casualties. It was a pity, but you can't always hit your target. Anyway, they died in the right cause," thus signing his own death warrant.

In the film, Fowler makes the same point. He can't erase from his mind the image of a mother covering her child's head, trying in vain to riddle her from the explosion.

Since film and novels are different mediums, there are small differences in each, the major difference is that the novel uses language to go into detail, while the film, a visual medi
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