"The Quiet American"How long can you remain undecided without getting involved? How long will it be before you are forced to choose a side? Thomas Fowler learns the answers to this dilemma the hard way. Fowler at the beginning of our story describes himself as an objective observer, who purposely does not take sides, but simply states the facts. "My journalist colleagues called themselves correspondents; I preferred the title of reporter. I wrote what I saw, I didn't do anything, even an opinion is a kind of action. (20)" He even goes so far as to frequently use opium so how can you not have an opinion about your own well-being. He got to the point where he felt that being alive was neither a good nor a bad thing. “Isn't it better for everyone to die?” opium reasoned with me. (10)" It appears that Fowler doesn't even develop an opinion about the relationship between himself and Pyle. In response to Vigot's statement about being friends with Pyle, Fowler responds "I'm a friend... Why not? (9)". Thomas also has a relationship with Phuong, but sees her only in terms of physical appearance and service, without letting emotions be involved. Thomas uses Phuong for his body and to prepare his opium pipes. Even faced with the challenge of losing Phuong to Pyle, he overexpresses the meaning of her only to his wife at home and not to Pyle or Phuong. And in the end, Fowler only "wins her back" as a result of Pyle's death , not for anything he did. Fowler wasn't judging anyone. When trying to accurately describe Pyle to Vigot, Thomas says, "A quiet American, I summed him up exactly as I might have said 'a blue lizard,' 'a white elephant.' .(9)" The last way Fowler decides to describe Pyle, even after preparing him to be killed, is in three words: "... middle of paper... Pyle's importation of weapons and the intervention plan are really causing so much devastation." Pyle was still thinking that there had been a mistake in saying that it really shouldn't have been a market day and that there should have been a military march. Pyle would continue to act on his plane to intervene unless Fowler stopped him. So when do we choose sides, when do we stop being objective? Fowler remembers what Vigot said: "What was it that he said? Something about all of us sooner or later getting caught up in a moment of emotion. (160) "When we're free and away from the problem and it doesn't really strike a chord within us; it's easy to maintain our objectivity. However, when we finally find ourselves backed into a corner, and something forces us to choose, we do so and stop being strangers. All quotes are from the quiet American