Man's Fate by Andre Malraux and the Quiet American by Graham Greene Term Paper

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COMMUNISM

MAN'S FATE AND THE QUIET AMERICAN

Communism has always been a controversial subject and it becomes all the more explosive when some authors choose to focus on its positive aspects. It is true that communism has usually been portrayed as an evil force especially in the United States where communist scare led to baseless persecution and arrests of tens of hundreds of people in 1950s. McCarthyism is the term we use for communist phobia that had gripped the nation during the 50s decade. But in those days with intense anti-communism sentiment raging in the United States, there were some courageous author who could look beyond the American propaganda against communism and explained why thought communism was better than American capitalism.

One such author was Graham Greene whose book, The Quiet American, published in 1955, took the world especially America by storm since it denounced U.S.'s so-called peace initiative in Vietnam. It must however be made clear, that despite the popular belief that The Quiet America was a communist novel, highlighting the positive side of communist principles and criticizing the capitalist beliefs harbored by 'na ve' Americans, that was not the primary objective of writing this novel. Greene may have a soft corner for communism, yet this book is basically about the flawed American policies in Vietnam that led to its first U.S. military defeat and caused immense humiliation. The central idea of the book is clear from what Fowler said upon Pyle's (American) death: "They killed him because he was too innocent to live. He was young and ignorant and silly and he got involved." (p.31)

The book was almost prophetic when it showed how naive Americans with an arrogant belief that they could help the millions of Vietnamese who simply did not want it, destroyed a nation, causing hundreds of death and immense destruction. It is amazing how the book foretold what happened a few years later in almost the exact manner. It was written when though America was involved in Vietnamese politics, it had not begun active military intervention. But somehow, Greene could foresee what America was planning to do in Vietnam and warned it against it own complacency, innocence, political manipulation and unsolicited intervention.

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The book may appear to endorse communism, yet communism is not the central subject. Greene does support communist beliefs and principles but mainly due to the fact that he saw something inherently wrong with American policies. The whole book revolves around unneeded and uncalled for American intervention in Indochina and the central motive can unearthed from what British character Fowler says to American Pyle: "You and your like are trying to make a war with the help of people who just aren't interested...They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want" (94).

However we must admit that in an attempt to denounce American policies, the author endorses communism, mainly to prove a point. Unlike Andre Malraux who in his book, Man's Fate highlights the positive side of communism because his character Kyo believed that only communism could save the poor from exploitation of Nationalist groups in China, Greene has a different purpose for supporting communism. The author dislikes the way America intervenes in Asia without the consent of the people in that region and to show that America's help is uncalled for and therefore Greene presents communism in a positive light. There is a delicate difference between the views expressed in the two books. While both endorse communism in their own way, the main purpose of doing so differs. In Graham Greene's novel, America and its unwelcome intrusion are the main subjects where communism steps in to support author's argument. However that is not the case with Malraux's book, Man's Fate, which is precisely about China and its political problems.

In Greene's book, the central characters Pyle and Fowler are symbolical representatives of their respective countries' policies. Pyle is young and full of naivete just like America, while Fowler is more or less impartial like Britain as Mr. Heng once says, "Mr. Fowler, you are English. You are neutral. You have been….....

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