Composition: The anti-war and anti-colonial orientation of G. Green's novel “The Quiet American. The originality of the genre of the anti-colonial novel (on the example of G. Green's work "The Quiet American")

ANTI-WAR AND ANTI-COLONIAL THEMES IN GRAHAM GREEN'S NOVEL "THE QUIET AMERICAN"

Vysochina D.A.,

Stakhanov Faculty

Lugansk National University named after T. Shevchenko

Graham Greene is an English writer, essayist and novelist. His novels are realistic, marked by psychologism, political relevance, complex ethical issues. Many of his works are close to the detective novel genre. G. Green gained worldwide fame, a reputation as a great master of prose, in particular, a political novel. He arouses the interest of many readers due to his talent - to consider philosophical generalizations in the most diverse conflicts of our time. Green began his work quite early, when he was still a student at Oxford University. Like many aspiring writers, he created poetry, at the same time he was engaged in the work of a journalist. In Green's later work, we find stories and plays, travel essays and essays, as well as critical reviews and autobiographical prose. And at the same time, he did not forget about journalism. Despite the huge variety of genres in his work, novels brought him real fame.

No matter how complex the structures of his books, no matter how great the contradictions, it is necessary to understand all this, because all this reflects the originality of his worldview. If we can understand them, then we can better understand the dialectic of the development of contemporary art in the West.

The purpose of my article is to consider anti-war and anti-colonial themes in one of G. Green's novels, The Quiet American.

Tasks:

Analyze the work of G. Green

Identify the main features of the anti-colonial novel

Analyze Green's novel "The Quiet American"

Summarize the results and draw conclusions

Subject of studyof this article is Green's depiction of anti-war and anti-colonial themes in the novel The Quiet American.

What is characteristic of Green's work? For the most part, his heroes are Englishmen, at least most of all they live in their homeland. Wherever fate took them: to Vietnam, Switzerland, Cuba. Green's work is characterized by the fact that he creates such critical situations that help to fully reveal the character of the characters. His heroes find themselves in situations that force them to make a choice - to remain decent or become a traitor, for loyalty to their principles, the heroes have to sacrifice their freedom and even their lives.

A key feature for most of the writer's novels is a constant problem that confronts a person with a choice of life position, regardless of whether it is active or passive. At first, in his first books, he condemns the active actions of people, he considers them meaningless, and sometimes even destructive. In subsequent works, Green's point of view changes dramatically.

"Besides the constant motif of loneliness and despair in Greene's novels

there is always another - "Green's" motive - persecution and search. In the vast majority of his novels - in the early and post-war ones - this motif passes through, and this is something more than a plot feature. The hero is obsessed with the thought of a force pursuing him (which, we note, is never mystical), but before it a person is always defenseless due to his loneliness and spiritual despair.

No matter how Green called his detective novels, and he persistently called them "entertainment novels" - they were never empty entertainment: they always contain deep meaning and significant subtext. Psychological and political. They have always been "serious".

Greene was a humanist. The main feature of his work was to find the human in people. Green is sensitive to cruelty and falsehood. He finds lies and rudeness as destructive qualities in relationships between people. Sometimes the heroes of his novels lose faith in the possibility of the victory of good over evil, he Green does not get tired of calling his readers to such qualities as kindness, nobility and humanity.

Green becomes one of the writers, authors of anti-colonial and anti-war novels. He condemns the war, considering it a manifestation of aggression, he does not like colonialism and the predatory essence of imperialism. Green considers all this to be "the slow slide of the Western world towards barbarism."

Consider the main features of the anti-colonial novel.

First, the action in such novels reflects the life of people in colonial, enslaved and dependent countries. The next point is that in the anti-colonial novels the conflict is shown in a sharp and dramatic way; events in it are often hierarchical. The writer depicts the growing protest of the people and dependent countries, people's dissatisfaction with their lives, and as a result, a transition to struggle is formed. The third point is that in all anti-colonist novels there are figures of representatives of imperialist circles (Pyle "The Quiet American"). Green contrasts these heroes with another of the heroes, who is shown in a state of crisis, moral and ideological dissatisfaction, which is further exacerbated by the maturing of the struggle for independence. The heroes have to choose their path. This choice is individual, each hero must make it himself. Despite all the differences, the heroes have something in common - they are all "heroes of the crossroads", they are trying to understand the current problems of our time, find a way out of the current situations, and, of course, define their attitude to ongoing political events.

For the realism of such books, a combination of satirical and tragic, eventfulness and psychologism is chosen.

One of Greene's most famous post-war novels is The Quiet American (1955), in which the writer protests against colonialism by describing the horrors of the Vietnam War. This novel is dedicated to the struggle of the Vietnamese people for their independence, they are tired of obeying and want to form their own independent nation. Before us appears the psychological drama of the English journalist Fowler, he is in no hurry to take someone's position, he is just in the role of an observer, as well as the drama of the "quiet American" Pyle, he is deceived by the US government and does not understand all the danger

the situation. The Quiet American is based on a true story, but Green doesn't recount it exactly:“I admit ... deviations without any remorse, because I wrote a novel, not a historical essay ...” .

The novel has a political character, it touches on one of the most important problems of modern literature - the problem of choice. The book is a detective novel, of which Green is the master.

The action of the novel takes place in Vietnam, the time of the novel is the fifties, exactly the time when the country was a French colony. The artistic originality of the book, first of all, is based on the method of characterizing the contrasts of the two main characters of the novel, on their constant comparison and opposition.

The main characters of the work are absolutely not ideal personalities: some of them are disappointed with what is happening, some have turned into cynics, they have a lot of vices, most of these heroes are just passive observers of what is happening, confused heroes who do not see a way out of life's labyrinth. But they all have one remarkable property - they never want to adapt and get used to the evil and dirt that surrounds them. In those moments when important, turning points happen in the lives of the heroes, all the best and honest that remains in their soul gives them courage, pushes them to noble deeds in the name of justice. These heroes stand for the protection of others, those who need help, support, intercession.

The narration of the novel is on behalf of one of the main characters - the English journalist Fowler. The second main character is Pyle, a young American diplomat. Naturally, in the novel there is not only one anti-war theme, two main lines intersect in it: the first is a love triangle, in which the elderly English journalist Thomas Fowler, the young American Alden Pyle and the Vietnamese girlfriend of Fowler Phuong take part; but it doesn’t particularly interest us, for our article the topic of military-political conflicts is more interesting, and persistent intervention, which in the future will lead to.

At the beginning of the novel, we see Fowler as a passive hero, he simply observes the events taking place and sends reports to London. The fate of Fowler partially repeats what Green himself experienced there. Pyle, the second hero of the novel, on the contrary, is directly involved in what is happening, although we do not immediately understand this. Pyle symbolizes US policy in Vietnam in general. The key events of the novel are centered around the US attempt to create a "third force" in the person of General The.

Alden Pyle, nicknamed the "quiet American" for his decent morality and poise, he appears before us as an employee of the American mission of economic assistance. But, in fact, over time, he opens up to the reader from a completely different side - his duties included organizing sabotages and provocations, but he had to organize them in such a way that it looked like the work of the Vietnamese communists fighting for the liberation of their country. Pyle has blood on his hands

of many people. The paradox of the whole situation lies in the fact that Pyle acts as not only an executioner, but also a victim. He blindly believed that the East needed a "third force" in the face of the West.

Pyle appears before us as the aggressor. “In vain I didn’t pay attention to this fanatical gleam in his eyes, I didn’t understand how his words, magic numbers hypnotize: the fifth column, the third force, the second coming ...” Fowler thinks of him. He warns him: “This third force of yours is all book fiction, nothing more. General Thee is just a thug with two or three thousand soldiers, this is not a third democracy.” .

The complete opposite of Alden was the reporter Fowler - he is an elderly, tired man, he had spiritual devastation, he perceives himself as just a reporter, his task is to give only facts.

It is in the image of Fowler that we see the image of a person with a complex internal struggle, he needs to change his position, from a passive hero he must become active, he will have to express his protest against the interference of Western politics in Vietnamese life. As the story arrives, we can trace the dynamics of that story. At first, Fowler does not interfere in anything. “Politics does not interest me; I'm a reporter. I don't interfere in anything." But as the French pilot Truen told him: “The time will come when you will have to take sides”.

Greene first uttered the phrase "I hate war" during a night skirmish that took place on the Phat Diem canal. He gives a very realistic description of what Fowler saw after the fight:

“The canal was full of corpses; he reminded me of a stew with too much meat in it. The corpses piled one on top of the other; someone's head, gray, featureless, like a convict's, with a shaved skull, stuck out of the water, just like a buoy. There was no blood: it must have been washed away with water a long time ago. .

Because of his professional activities, Fowler becomes an eyewitness to the consequences that the war brought to civilians: their homes are destroyed, and they themselves are killed.

Further, the events of the novel unfold in such a way that Fowler realizes the immorality of his position of non-intervention. He starts to act. Fowler is a man with a bad conscience. He is a vulnerable person, and his cynicism and indifference are just a protective mask that covers his face, distorted by suffering. Finally, a protest is brewing in Fowler: in a conversation with Pyle, he declares:

The last straw of Fowler's patience was the explosion, which was organized by the Americans. Pyle took an active part in this. It was he who organized the explosion on the square, which led to the death of innocent people. Women and children are dying. Remembering the explosion and the people who died in the square, Pyle coolly, with monstrous calmness, declares:“War requires sacrifice. They are inevitable. It’s a pity, of course, but you don’t always hit the target. One way or another, they died for a just cause.”

The description of what is happening from Fowler's point of view can be expressed in the following words:“The woman was sitting on the ground, putting on her knees what was left

from her baby: spiritual delicacy forced her to cover the child with a straw peasant hat. She was quiet and motionless ... The legless stump near the flower bed was still twitching, like a freshly slaughtered chicken. .

Pyle never, ever felt remorse, his guilt. One like him cannot be taught humanity, he can only be destroyed like a poisonous reptile that is dangerous to others. Fowler decides to extradite Pyle to the Vietnamese partisans, which means only one thing - the death of Pyle. Fowler explains his decision as follows:“He blindly breaks into other people's lives, and people die because of his stupidity. It is a pity that yours did not finish him on the river when he sailed from Nam-Din. The fate of many people would be very different.” .

Having defined his attitude towards Pyle, Green, through the image of Fowler, thus shows his attitude towards war and socio-political injustice. The conflict between the American Pyle and the Englishman Fowler reveals the main problem of the book: what was actually the mission of Western civilization in Vietnam. The political problem of the novel "The Quiet American" for Greene is primarily connected with the moral formulation of the question: can one nation decide its fate for another, does it have the right to do so? The answer to this question can be found at the end of the novel. Pyle's death shows the position of the author himself on this issue - he believes that each nation should decide its own fate, and none of the others should interfere in this decision or exert any pressure on people, which may subsequently lead to a change in this decision .

The novel "The Quiet American" is one of the clearest examples of Green's protest against the colonial, aggressive war of Western civilization in Vietnam. In his novel, Green displays real pictures - the consequences that the war brought to civilians.

The main idea of ​​the novel is displayed in the words of the protagonist Fowler:“They want their fill of rice. They don't want to be shot at. They want life to flow smoothly. They want white people to leave." .

As mentioned earlier, the motif of loneliness permeates the entire novel The Quiet American. This is a prime example of the life of the greatest writer Green. It was his whole life, like this work, that was filled with irresistible loneliness. Loneliness and the desire to hide from people who were alien to him and who did not understand him, just as he did not understand them, and just as Fowler did not understand Pyle.

The publication of the novel The Quiet American caused a lot of discussion about its "anti-war and anti-colonial themes." Both supporters of this topic and vicious enemies took an active part in these discussions. The American press accused Green of anti-American sentiments and feelings, of slandering the brave American guys who are already unhappy, in difficult conditions, far from their home, fulfilling their mission. The press claimed that the US military was merely spreading the ideas of American democracy to other peoples.

Much has been written and written about Green. Often people who have read only 2 - 3 of his books, and then in translation, and not always impeccable, often make mistakes and mislead readers. So one professor

He once said, instructing students: “Green does not have, and never had, evolution! He never changes!" Is it so? Of course not! Reading carefully his works, you will definitely find something new in many of them. Because no matter how the weather changes in literature and the world, Green remains one of the unique and inimitable, but by no means frozen and always the same! He is undeniably one of the UK's biggest artists!

Greene's novels have been made into films on numerous occasions. The Quiet American was no exception. It was made into two films: one shortly after its release, , second . The meaning of the plot of the first film adaptation was not fully adhered to the novel: a CIA officer took part in it. Graham Greene called the film "propaganda". The author did not live to see the second film adaptation and could not express his attitude, but its plot is much closer to the novel and has the same political meaning.

After analyzing the novel The Quiet American, we can conclude that Green managed to quite vividly convey his moods towards the war. We were able to see that Green condemned the war. Having considered the main features of the anti-colonial novel, we can conclude that Green really adhered to them when creating this novel. Anti-war and anti-colonial themes can be traced throughout the novel.

LITERATURE:

AT.Ivashev. The fate of English writers. Publishing house "Soviet

writer”, M., 1989, p.443

Abstract: Graham Greene: life path and work. Anti-colonial

novel of the 50s, Orsk, 2003.

G. Green "The Quiet American", From Wikipedia - free

encyclopedias -

Green G. Quiet American. – M.: Progress, 1986.

Summary: Anti-colonial novels of the 50s and G. Green's novel "Quiet

American"

SUMMARY

Vysochina D.A.

Anti-war and anti-colonial themes in Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American.

The article is devoted to the work of the English writer Graham Greene, as well as anti-war and anti-colonial themes in his novel The Quiet American. AT

it analyzes the work of G. Green, his novel, reveals the main features of the anti-colonial novel. A key feature for most of the writer's novels is a constant problem that confronts a person with a choice of life position, regardless of whether it is active or passive. Graham Greene's novel The Quiet Americanone of the most significant works of anticoloniasheet literature - opens a new period in his work. The article mentions that the theme of interest to us in the novel is revealed quite clearly, it can be traced throughout the novel. The whole novel reflects Greene's mood and attitude towards the war. At the end of the article, the results were summarized and conclusions were drawn on the topic.

Keywords: anti-war, anti-colonial, Green's motive, loneliness, problem of choice, sabotage, provocations, aggressor.

Visochina D.O.

Antivesuch an anti-colonial theme in Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American.

The article is dedicated to the work of the English writer Graham Greene, as well as to the anti-wariiand anti-colonialiithemes in yoga novel "The Quiet American". It analyzes the work of G. Green, yoga novel, reveals the main drawings of the anti-colonial novel. The key rice for more novels of the writer - tsea permanent problem, like putting a person in front of a choice of life position, regardless of whether she will be active, chi is passive. Graham Greene's novel "The Quiet American" is one of the most significant works of antandcolonialistsbtoї literature - marks a new period in yoga creativity. The article guessed what the topic is, yak on tsіkavit,in a novel, it’s clear to finish it, I’ll forgive itto eatXiastretching out a mustache novel. The whole novel reflects the mood of Green and the staging before the war. At the end of the article, the results were aggravated and the visnovka was brokenpertopicsoyu.

Keys i words: anti-war, anti-colonial, "Green" motive, selfishness, choice problem, sabotage, provocation, aggressor.

Daria Vysochina

Anti-war and anti-colonial themes in Graham Greene's novel“ The Quiet American”.

The aarticleisdedicated to the English writer Graham Greene. It is alsodevotedto theanti-war andtheanti-colonial themes in his novel“ The Quiet American” . Here is analizedG. Greene'screativity, his novelandthe key features of the anti-colonial novel. A key feature for most of the writer's novels - is a constant problem that puts a person to chooselifeposition,regardlessofwhetherit isactive or passive.Greene shows us 2

different people, to develop his political concerns, uses Fowler to represent one set of ideas and Pyle another.Graham Greene's novel“ The Quiet American” – oneof the most significant worksin theanti-colonial literature - opensa new period in his work.His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene was notable for his ability to combine serious literary acclaim with widespread popularity. Greene suffered from , which had a profound effect on his writing.The article mentioned that the topics, in whichwe are interested, in the novel revealed quite clearly, it tracesthroughout thewholesalenovel. Thenovelshows Green'smood and attitude to the war.We also mentioned that “The Quiet American” proved to be a great book that was both praised and criticized. For the most part, it had good critiques, however some American critics felt that it put down Americans. After its publication in the U.S.The Quiet American"was widely condemned as anti-American.There were 2 film adaptations of “The Quiet American” – after the publication and in 2002. The sense of the first film was not according to the book. It was partially changed. In the end of tarticlewesummarize theresultsanddo theconclusions on the subject.

keywords: anti-war, anti-colonial, "Green's" motive,theloneliness,theproblemofselection,asabotage,aprovocation, the aggressor.

Plan.

1. Graham Greene: life path and creativity.

2. Anticollonial novel of the 50s: main features.

3. Anti-war and anti-colonial themes in the novel The Quiet American.

I . Graham Greene (b. 1904) is a modern English writer, one of the living prose writers of the West. The author of numerous works, he has gained worldwide fame and reputation as a true master of prose - in particular the political novel. Greene is often referred to as a living classic. And they do this not so much as a sign of respect for the impressive creative experience, but as a tribute to the artistic quality and fascination of his books. Interest in the writer's books occasionally increases due to the fact that it is in the nature of his talent to extract great philosophical generalizations from the most acute conflicts of our time.

Green began to write early, while still a student at Oxford University, where he entered in 1922. Like many beginners, he paid tribute to poetry, while simultaneously doing journalistic work. Already in 1925, when he was twenty-one years old, a small collection of poems was published - his first and at the same time last book of poems. In the future, Green wrote stories and plays, travel essays and essays, critical reviews and autobiographical prose. At the same time, he paid great attention to journalism: in particular, since 1926, for four years he was the editor (assistant) of the Times newspaper. Journalism turned out to be a good school for the future prose writer: it aroused forever interest in current events, taught him to be quick and concise. As a journalist, he traveled a lot, lived in Africa, Mexico, Vietnam.

In 1926, the writer converted to Catholicism, and this undoubtedly influenced his work. Questions of faith and unbelief, sin and grace, spirit and? are constantly in the center of attention of the characters in his books. However, it would be wrong to consider him, as some foreign critics do, a “Catholic writer.” His rejection of any dogma includes the dogmas of the Catholic Church. Perhaps Green himself said it best about the significance of religion in his writings: “I am not a Catholic writer, but a Catholic writer.”

Despite the genre diversity of Green's work, novels brought him real and well-deserved fame. The first novel, The Man Within, was published in 1929. This is a book by a young writer. It does not have that restraint and at the same time subtlety, transparency of style, which are one of the enduring virtues of any mature work by Green. But already in the very first novel, he asks those questions that will appear before us as facets in his further work. Already in the very first historical novel, which takes place at the beginning XX centuries, there are motifs that remain favorite in mature books that have won fame: the motif of betrayal, sometimes involuntary, and crime and punishment, physical defeat and moral purification and victory.

Green's work is characterized by the following features:

1. The diversity of geography in his works: his characters are mostly English, rarely lived in their homeland. Fate threw them to Sweden, Vietnam, Cuba. Literary critics expressed the opinion that, no matter where in the world the action of books takes place, it still takes place in "Greenland" - a country born of the writer's imagination and talent. However, "Greenland" is by no means a fictional country. Novels - "guides" on it are replete with accurate signs of real time and place, which gives a special, not only ethnographic, but most importantly socio-political flavor to the conflicts that the writer explores. Green deliberately chooses the “hot spots” of the planet as the setting for his novels – Vietnam (“The Quiet American”) fighting the French colonialists, Cuba, where the cruel regime of Ballista (“Our Man in Taiwan”) ruled.

2. The choice of geographical area is determined by the peculiarities of the organization of the plot by the writer. Green is distinguished by the fact that in many of his works he creates critical situations that help to reveal the complexity of human characters. The characters in Greene's novels find themselves in extreme conditions that contribute to the disclosure of their moral essence, forcing them to make a choice between decency and betrayal, for loyalty to their principles they have to pay with freedom, and even with life.

3. Green has always been concerned with moral categories. He was occupied with the nature and essence of good (for Greene, this is, first of all, humanity, compassion) and evil (dogma, callousness, hypocrisy).

4. Speaking about the problem of following dogma, it should be noted that Green, a Catholic, willingly forgives his heroes both the lack of faith and conscious atheism. Perhaps the only thing that is unacceptable to him under any circumstances is blind adherence to abstract dogma.

5. One of the key issues for the writer was the question of the individual's right to be active. The problem of choosing between an active and passive life position is a key one for most of the writer's novels, but its specific solution has changed significantly over a long creative path. In the early books, he tends to condemn active actions, considering them meaningless and sometimes destructive. In later works, his point of view changes radically.

6. His works are characterized by a constant motif of loneliness and despair, as well as the motif of persecution and predestination. His heroes are obsessed with the thought of a force pursuing them (which is never mystical), but a person is always defenseless before it. Heroes, in the end, either commit suicide, or, one way or another, become victims of a pursuing force.

7. One of Green's favorite means of revealing life phenomena and human destinies is a paradox. Already in the novels of the 30s, this means is organically connected, moreover, it directly follows from the paradoxical life perception of the writer himself: his great pity for a person, reinforced by his own philosophical concept (“love a person like God, knowing the worst about him”), understanding the depths of the fall man, understanding the greatest contradictions that can coexist in his mind. On this basis, first the images of Pinky and Ferrest appear, and then Pyle, who killed thousands of people and turned white at the sight of blood on his boot.

8. Since the beginning of his literary activity, Green has acted in two heterogeneous genres - an "entertaining" novel with a detective bias and a "serious" novel that explores the depths of human psychology and is colored by philosophical reflections on human nature.

II . However, in the 1950s, an obvious shift towards social problems was outlined in Green's work. The socio-political conflicts of the time began to determine the dramatic collisions and themes of his works. Grin began to see the tragedy of personality in the light of political conflicts. Green becomes one of the prominent writers, the author of anti-colonial novels, in which he condemns aggressive wars, colonialism, the aggressive nature of imperialism, which he calls "the slow slide of the Western world towards barbarism." It is the anti-colonial novel that becomes one of the leading trends in the 50s. This was historically determined, since the era of anti-imperialist struggle begins in the 1950s - the time when the former colonies of the developed countries of Western Europe begin to fight for liberation from the oppression of their debtors. The main features of the anti-colonial novel:

- the action in the novels takes place in colonial, dependent countries. The distances are either real or fictional. In the novels, along with Vietnam, Guatemala, Bahraz, Nidia, Delmina appear, under which the countries of Africa and the Arab East are guessed.

- the conflict in anti-colonial novels is highly dramatic; events are often hierarchical. The growing protest of the people and dependent countries and the transition to struggle are depicted.

- in all anti-colonist novels, images of representatives of imperialist circles appear (Pyle "The Quiet American"; Winthrop Eliot in N. Lewis's novel "Volcanoes Above Us").

- these heroes are confronted by the main character, an Englishman, who in all these books is shown in a state of ideological and moral crisis, aggravated under the influence of the imminent anti-colonial struggle. The hero is faced with the need to choose a path. This choice is purely individual. With all the differences, these heroes have one thing in common: they are all “crossroads heroes”, trying to understand the most complex problems of our time, to determine their attitude to political events.

- the realism of these books is characterized by a combination of satire and tragedy, eventfulness and psychologism.

Greene's novel The Quiet American is one of the most significant works of anti-colonial literature. The realism of The Quiet American is based on the artistic development of the most important socio-political processes of the time, the author's realistic position is in condemning the colonial wars, in denouncing the war.

The novel is political in nature and touches on one of the most important problems of modern literature - the problem of choice. The book is structured like a detective novel, of which Green is a skilled craftsman, based on a retrospective disclosure of the plot. There has been a brutal murder; it is up to the reader to investigate it, find the killer, find out the reasons together with the investigators. The action takes place in Vietnam, the 50s, when the country was a French colony. However, the artistic originality of the book is based, first of all, on the reception of the contrasting characteristics of the two main characters of the novel, on their continuous comparison and opposition. The English journalist Fowler, on behalf of whom the story is told, and the young American diplomat Pyle, are connected from the very beginning of the novel by a far from simple relationship.

Alden Pyle, nicknamed the "quiet American" for his seeming decency and moral poise, is an employee of the American Economic Relief Mission. But, in fact, his duties included organizing sabotage and provocations in such a way that they looked like the work of the Vietnamese communists fighting for the liberation of their country. Pyle has the blood of many people on his hands. But the paradox is that Pyle is not only an executioner, but also a victim. Since he was influenced by York Harding (the idea that the East needed a "third force" in the face of the West) and Pyle blindly believed this dogma.

His opposite was the English reporter Fowler - a tired, mentally devastated person who perceives himself as a reporter whose task is to give only facts. A man who has lost his ideals and devoid of any aspirations, Fowler tries to remain an outside observer of the struggle and atrocities that unfold before his eyes, and seeks solace from suffering in love. It is through the image of Fowler - the image of a man who (like many intellectuals in the West) goes through a difficult path of internal struggle - the author expresses his protest against the colonial policy of the West in Vietnam. As the plot unfolds, the dynamics of this plot can be traced. At first, Fowler tries not to get involved. He considers his main task to be the presentation of facts, as it seems to him at first, it does not concern him.

“Politics does not interest me; I'm a reporter. I don't interfere in anything." but as the French pilot Truen told him: "The time will come and you will have to take sides." Green perfectly shows how he tries to suppress and extinguish it in himself. He first says "I hate war" during an episode of a night skirmish on Phat Diem. Green gives a very realistic description of the picture Fowler saw after the fight:

“The canal was full of corpses; he reminded me of a stew with too much meat in it. The corpses piled one on top of the other; someone's head, gray, featureless, like a convict's, with a shaved skull, stuck out of the water, just like a buoy. There was no blood: it must have been washed away with water a long time ago.

Due to the specifics of his professional activity, Fowler becomes an eyewitness of the consequences that this war bears for civilians: their homes are destroyed, and they themselves are killed. There is a small village in front of Fowler; but… life left her – not even the chicken was left… These people believed in something… They were living beings, not gray bloodless corpses.” Not far from the village, French soldiers found a woman and a little boy. “Both were certainly dead: there was a small neat clot of blood on the woman’s forehead, and the child seemed to be sleeping. He was about six years old, and he lay with his bony knees pulled up to his chin, like a fetus in the womb.

Gradually, a protest is brewing in Fowler. He already openly says in a conversation with Pyle:

"Do not poke your nose at the East with your clucking about the threat to the human person ...". And he adds: "This is their country." The last straw of patience was the explosion organized by the Americans (including Pyle). The purpose of the explosion was to destroy the Vietnamese generals during the parade. However, it was postponed to an earlier date. As a result, only civilians suffered:

“The woman was sitting on the ground, putting on her knees what was left of her baby: spiritual delicacy forced her to cover the child with a straw peasant hat. She was quiet and motionless ... The legless stump near the flower bed was still twitching, like a freshly slaughtered chicken. Judging by the shirt, he was once a rickshaw.”

Struck by what he saw, Fowler agrees to extradite Pile to the Vietnamese partisans, which meant one thing - death. Fowler gives the following rationale for his decision: “He blindly breaks into other people's lives, and people die because of his stupidity. It is a pity that yours did not finish him on the river when he sailed from Nam-Din. The fate of many people would be very different.”

By defining his relationship to Pyle, Fowler defined his relationship to war and socio-political injustice. Thus, the conflict between the American Pyle and the Englishman Fowler is intended to reveal the main problem of the book: what is the real mission of Western civilization in Vietnam. This political problem for Greene is connected with the moral question: whether one nation has the right to decide for another its fate, just as in love one person decides for another, what is his happiness. The answer to the question lies at the end of the novel. Pyle's death determines the position of the author himself on this issue - each nation must decide its own fate.

The Quiet American is Green's vivid protest against the colonial, aggressive war of Western civilization in Vietnam. In his novel, Green shows real pictures of the consequences that this war brings for its inhabitants, he tried to convey to everyone the crime committed against the freedom and happiness of an entire people.

The main idea of ​​his work is expressed in the words of the protagonist Fowler: “They want their fill of rice. They don't want to be shot at. They want life to flow smoothly. They want white people to leave.

Bibliography.

1. Graham Greene "The Quiet American" / selected: collection.

2. Ivashova V. "Paradoxes of consciousness: Graham Greene in the light of his recent publications." Questions of Literature, 1979 No. 2 (p. 77-78)

3. Ivashova V.V. "English literature XX century", Moscow, "Enlightenment", 1967.

4. Anikin G.V. "A History of English Literature".

5. "Foreign literature XX in." edited by Bogoslovsky.

6. "Foreign literature XX in." edited by Andreev L.G.

Alden Pyle is one of the central characters of the novel, a young employee of the American embassy in Saigon on economic issues, the antagonist of the English journalist Fowler. Pyle comes from a well-to-do family. Pyle's way of thinking and his demeanor are typical of his time, when there was a sharp ideological struggle between states of different political systems. For the hero there is nothing “his”, personal, unique. He checks all his thoughts and feelings according to the developed standard of concepts, tries to correlate them with some forever developed rules. He perceives the events taking place in Vietnam like most other “quiet Americans”, that is, he prefers the official version of his government, he agrees with political comments. Love relationships are a reason to reflect and compare them with the conclusions of Kinsey's statistics. Pyle is not burdened with morality. Without thinking about the moral side of his act, he takes the girl away from Fowler, arguing that she will be better off with him, promising to marry her and provide

position in society. Fowler, this tired, mentally devastated man who worked in Saigon for a long time and had nothing better than this job, sincerely falls in love with the Vietnamese girl Phuong. But Pyle takes Phuong away. Not only personal drama, but also professional observation, intuition help Fowler to discern in Pyle the carrier of aggression. Fowler reproaches himself for not having seen "that fanatical gleam in his eyes, not understanding how hypnotizing his words, magic numbers: the fifth column, the third force, the second coming." Fowler, who aspired all his life to be an outside observer and report only facts to the newspapers, without expressing his attitude to them, decides to intervene in the course of events. He was deeply indignant and struck by Pyle's readiness to help plant "democracy" (in the American sense of the word), in which the American saw the "salvation" of this country. Fowler tries to convince Pyle: “This third force of yours is all book fiction, nothing more. General Thee is just a thug with two or three thousand soldiers, this is not a third democracy.” But Pyle is deaf to such appeals. Arguments lead nowhere. Moreover, the “quiet American” organizes an explosion in the square, as a result of which innocent people die: women, children. And Fowler decides to extradite the American to the Vietnamese guerrillas, despite the memory of Pyle's good deed: during the attack of the Vietnamese guerrillas, he saved the journalist from death by dragging him to a safe place. But one good deed cannot erase Pyle's monstrous act. “You should have looked at him ... He stood there and said that this was all a sad misunderstanding that there should have been a parade ...” - says Fowler. For him, everything has already been decided: after the death of Pyle, he remains in Vietnam, “this honest”, but impoverished country. G. Green sympathizes with the Vietnamese people, the Vietnamese communists (Khen), and with hostility treats people like Pyle - American diplomats who began their provocative actions in Vietnam.

Glossary:

– quiet american analysis

– Graham Greene The Quiet American Analysis

– green silent american analysis

– the image of Paula in a quiet American

- a quiet American is a characteristic characteristic of Paul and Fowl

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Quiet American. Green Graham

Quiet American. Novel.

Alden Pyle is a representative of the economic department of the American embassy in Saigon, the antagonist of Fowler, another hero of the novel. Being a generalized image of very specific political forces and methods of struggle on the world stage, the figure of O.P. carries a deeper and broader meaning. Before us is a fairly familiar type of human behavior that was formed precisely in the 20th century, in the era of acute ideological confrontation between states and systems, when the ideological conviction of a person who is not able to think independently and critically turns on the mental level into a kind of programmed judgments and actions, stereotyped thinking, seeking to to enclose the complexity of human relations in ready-made frameworks and schemes. For O.P. there is nothing individual, private, unique. Everything that he sees, he experiences himself, he seeks to bring it under a system of concepts, to correlate it with some supposedly forever given rules, a model of relationships: he compares his love experience with the conclusions of Kinsey's statistics, his impressions of Vietnam - from the point of view of American political commentators. Each person killed for him is either a "red danger" or a "warrior of democracy." The artistic originality of the novel is based on the comparison and opposition of the two main characters: Fowler and O.P. O.P. looks much more prosperous: he graduated from Harvard, he is from a good family, young and quite rich. Everything is subject to the rules of morality, but morality is formal. So, he steals a girl from his friend Fowler, and explains this by saying that she will be better with him, he can give her what Fowler cannot: marry her and give her a position in society; his life is reasonable and measured.

Gradually, O.P. turns into a carrier of aggression. “I shouldn’t have paid attention to this fanatical gleam in his eyes, I didn’t understand how his words, magic numbers hypnotize: the fifth column, the third force, the second coming ...” Fowler thinks about him. The third force that can and should save Vietnam, and at the same time help establish US dominance in the country, according to O.P. and those who direct it, should be national democracy. Fowler warns O.P.: "This third force of yours is all book fiction, nothing more. General Thee is just a thug with two or three thousand soldiers, this is not a third democracy." But O.P. cannot be persuaded. He organizes an explosion in the square, and innocent women and children die, and O.P., standing in a square filled with corpses, worries about nothing: "He looked at the wet spot on his shoe and asked in a fallen voice: - What is it “Blood,” I said, “have you never seen, or what?” “It is imperative to clean it, so you can’t go to the envoy,” he said ... "By the time the story begins, O.P. is dead - he appears before us in our thoughts Fowler: "I thought, 'What's the point of talking to him? He will remain a righteous man, but how can you blame the righteous - they are never to blame for anything. They can only be contained or destroyed. The righteous is also a kind of insane person."

Thomas Fowler was an English journalist active in South Vietnam from 1951-1955. A tired, mentally devastated person, in many ways similar to Scobie - the hero of another novel by Graham Greene - "The Heart of the Matter". He believes that it is his duty to report only facts to the newspapers, their assessment does not concern him, he does not want to interfere in anything, he strives to remain a neutral observer. T.F. has been in Saigon for a long time, and the only thing he treasures that keeps him there is his love for the Vietnamese girl Phu-ong. But the American Alden Pyle appears and takes Phuong away.

The novel begins with the murder of Pai la and with Phuong returning to T.F. But then there is a flashback. The police are looking for the criminal, and in parallel with this, T.F. remembers Pail: he saved him during the attack of the Vietnamese partisans, literally taking him to a safe place, risking his own life.

Like a good deed? Pyle annoys T.F. with his ideas, his peremptory behavior bordering on bigotry. Finally learning that the explosion in the square, arranged by the Americans, as a result of which women and children were killed, was the work of Pyle, T.F. could not stand it and handed him over to the Vietnamese partisans: “You should have looked at him ... He stood there and said that it was all a sad misunderstanding that a parade was to take place ...

There, in the square, a woman's child was killed ... She covered him with a straw hat. "After Pyle's death, the fate of T.F. somehow arranges itself: he remains in Vietnam -" this honest country "where poverty is not covered veils of shame; the woman who once easily left him for Pyle, with the same naturalness of advantage, now easily and sadly comes back.

Bibliography

For the preparation of this work, materials from the site http://lib.rin.ru/cgi-bin/index.pl were used

To the question, well, please send me an analysis of Graham Greene's novel "The Quiet American". for the exam!!! given by the author Nelly Tsai the best answer is Green's novel The Quiet American is one of the most significant
works of anti-colonial literature. The realism of The Quiet American
is based on the artistic development of the most important socio-political
processes of time, the realistic position of the author is in condemnation
colonial wars, in the denunciation of war.
The novel is political in nature and touches on one of the most important issues
modern literature - the problem of choice. The book is built like a detective
novel, of which Green is a skilled craftsman, at a retrospective
revealing the plot. There has been a brutal murder; investigate, find
the killer, it is up to the reader to find out the reasons together with the investigators.
The action takes place in Vietnam, the 50s, when the country was French
colony. However, the artistic originality of the book is based, first of all,
in total, at the reception of the contrasting characteristics of the two main characters
novel, on their continuous comparison and opposition. English
journalist Fowler, on behalf of whom the story is coming, and a young American
diplomat Pyle, associated from the very beginning of the novel is far from simple
relationships.
Alden Pyle, nicknamed "The Quiet American" for his seeming decency
and moral balance, - an employee of the American mission
economic assistance. But, in fact, his duties included
organizing sabotage and provocations in such a way that they resemble
to the work of the Vietnamese communists fighting for the liberation of their
countries. Pyle has the blood of many people on his hands. But the paradox is
that Pyle is not only an executioner, but also a victim. Since he was under the influence
York Harding (the idea that the East needs a "third force" in the face of
West) and Pyle blindly believed this dogma.
His antipode was the English reporter Fowler - tired, mentally
devastated person who perceives himself as a reporter, the task
which - to give some facts. A person who has lost ideals and is deprived of any
or aspirations, Fowler tries to remain an outside observer of that
struggle and atrocities that are unfolding before his eyes, and seeks consolation
from suffering in love. It is through the image of Fowler - the image of a man,
passing (like many intellectuals in the West) a difficult path
internal struggle - the author expresses his protest against the colonial
Western policy in Vietnam. As the plot unfolds, it is traced
the dynamics of this story. At first, Fowler tries not to get involved. His
he considers the main task to be the presentation of facts, as it seems to him at first, his
does not concern.
“Politics does not interest me; I'm a reporter. I'm into nothing
intervene. "But as the French pilot Truen told him:" The time will come
and you'll have to take sides." Green is excellent at showing
how he tries to suppress and extinguish it in himself. For the first time he speaks
"I hate war" during an episode of a night skirmish on the Phat Diem channel. Green
gives a very realistic description of the picture that Fowler saw after
combat:
“The canal was full of corpses; he reminded me of a stew in which there is too much
a lot of meat. The corpses piled one on top of the other; someone's head, gray,
faceless, like a convict's, with a shaved skull, stuck out of the water, just like
buoy. There was no blood: it was probably washed away with water a long time ago.
Due to the specifics of his professional activity, Fowler
becomes an eyewitness of the consequences that this war bears for
civilians: their homes are destroyed, and they themselves are killed. Here before
Fowler a small village; but ... life left her - even chicken and that
left… These people believed in something… They were living beings, not
gray bloodless corpses. French soldiers near the village
found a woman and a little boy. "Both were certainly dead: on
there was a neat little clot of blood on the woman's forehead, and the child seemed
sleeping. He was about six years old, and he lay with his bony knees drawn up to
chin like a fetus in a mother's womb."
Gradually, a protest is brewing in Fowler.