In Graham Greene's novel, The Quiet American, Greene describes the American character and foreign policy of the 1950s. It does this by maintaining three important themes; the insufficiency of theoretical thinking, the fear of innocence and the difficulty of remaining neutral. Throughout the novel, Greene emphasizes “that innocence and idealism can claim as many lives as the opposite, frightening cynicism” (Iyer). Through the lives of the three main characters, Thomas Fowler, Alden Pyle, and Phuong, Tree exemplifies the struggles these characters faced in relation to foreign policy during the 1950s. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Graham Greene, a famous English novelist was born in 1904. After a difficult childhood, Greene studied at Ballion College, Oxford (Gorham-Davis). While in college, Greene converted to Roman Catholicism. Shortly thereafter he published his first work, a book of verse. In 1955 Greene published his novel, The Quiet American. He set the novel in Vietnam, which at the time was experiencing a growing local insurrection against French colonial rule (Iyer). However, unlike many of his other writings, in this novel (Gorham-Davis) “the effect of circumstances is specifically ideological and political”. Along with various political agendas, the idea of ​​establishing a third force against the communists and French colonials plays an important role in Greene's depiction of foreign policy struggles. Throughout the novel, there is a recurring theme about the insufficiency of theoretical thinking related to politics. during the 1950s. Every thought refers in one way or another to politics. This includes personal motivations as they seem linked to political opinions. For example, better understanding Fowler means better understanding his political thought. In a larger scheme of things, Fowler disapproves of American liberals attempting to bring their textbook notions of freedom and democracy to Asia. From a more personal perspective, Fowler's comment about his ex-wife's letter makes sense by using people and countries interchangeably (Smith). While Pyle prefers to learn from books, Fowler chooses to learn by acquiring all the hard facts. This serves as an example that differentiates Pyle from Fowler. Their different ways lead to different opinions on how to solve the Vietnam problem. Pyle believes a democracy would help, but Fowler insists otherwise. Throughout the novel Fowler attempts to explain that thinking too much outside the box ultimately leads to thinking of difficult realities as mere facts. Ultimately, this causes problems when people begin to assume that such simple solutions can solve such difficult problems, such as Pyle's idea of ​​establishing a third force. Furthermore, Greene also highlights the fear of innocence throughout the novel. According to Fowler, “innocence is like a mute leper who has lost his bell and wanders the world with no intention of harm. You can't blame the innocent, they are always innocent. All you can do is control them or eliminate them” (Greene PAGE). Likewise, in the communists' plan for the political seizure of power, the first step requires the elimination of the social democrats and liberals (Gorham-Davis). With the assistance of Vietnam Communist agents, Fowler works to eliminate Pyle, the American. Fowler deems Pyle dangerous simply because he is innocent. Despite being extremely naive, Pyle sincerely wants to help solve the problems in Vietnam. For example, Pyle helps plan a bombing in a public square, without even thinking about the innocent people who would be affected because he is so caught up in the agenda).