The "Quiet American" is set in mid-1950s colonial Vietnam. The author, a Brit, does an excellent job in setting the scene and characters. Virtually everything is appropriate to what must have been the time and place. Therein lies the diffficulty with the novel. While very well written, with sharp, cynical dialog, it is all too easy to read too much into "QA". There are all kinds of opportunities to behold allegorical references in Alden Pyle (the namesake),Vigot(the French detective), Fowler(the cynical Brit journalist) and especially Phoung, the young Saigon woman. Poor Phoung!! She and that sister will outlive us all. Armed with 20/20 historical hindsight, how easy it is to proclaim that "QA" is prophetic and prescient! If only LBJ had read it! Or Nixon!! This reviewer (and Vietnam vet) is a bit more cynical. The devil's advocate in me might state that Greene merely wrote a superior novel, set in Vietnam, but with nothing more added. Pyle, Phoung and the whole crew represent no one other than themselves. The story can stand quite capably on its' own two feet. With no "historical perspectives" required. The conflict between these views is the essence of "QA". I have to mention a classic line from the plot: "The French Army controlled the highways until 7PM. After that, they controlled the watch towers". That was Vietnam in a sentence. Every night our unit went back to our base camp, closed the gates and posted guys in the guard towers. Vietnam is a scary place after sundown and Charley (the Viet Cong or "Victor Charley") ran the place after dark. The headline is borrowed from my buddy, Jim Lydlle, the chaplain's assistant. Of the 2 opinions above, I prefer the latter. "QA" is not prophecy. It takes an American or a Frenchman to capture the essence of Indochina, just as I believe only Brits and Irishmen can write about Ireland. Readers wishing to appreciate the fascinating French Vietnamese period should pounce on "Street Without Joy" by the late Bernard Fall.
Willy and Charley get into an argument and Charley leaves. ... Later that night Biff and Happy come home and find Willy planting seeds in the back yard. ... Thus, Biff becomes lost and must set out to find his own values. Once Biff begins to develop his own beliefs, his opinions about his father change. ... It is merely in retaliation for his own rejection. ...
They try to make it look like if she drowned in a near by river on the night of her departure. ... She walked all night until 6:oo a.m until she reached Concord, and from there rode on into Manchester. ... No one wanted to hire her as a driver for a while, but she began to practice on her own. ... News of the one-eyed stage driver spread, and Charley became well known. She got paid a lot of money for her successful run, so with the money she bought her own little farm. ...
Manny ended his own life because he failed at business. ... Miller brilliantly expresses a particular crisis the modern witch hunt in his own society, but it is not often, in ou own world, that the issues and statements so clearly emerge in a naturally dramatic form (13). ...
He is now without a Job and has to go to Charley and old friend to borrow money to pay his insurance premium. ... Charley offers Willy a Job; however, Willy refuses and says he cannot work for him. ... Later that night, Biff comes home and finds Willy out in the back yard planting seeds and talking to his brother Ben. ... In this play Willy is a character, who only wants to live in his own world. ... His lies soon became reality in his own mind. ...
Then there were the ones including Captain Jack, Hooker Jim, and Scar-faced Charley, who couldn't live among their enemies. ... He was angry that the Army had killed his fellow men and gave a message by murdering at least 14 of the men owning the homes. ... A few nights later, on a clear night, a large amount of troops moved in on Captain Jacks Stronghold and fought for three days finally taking the stronghold and forcing the Modocs back. ... So one night the Modocs silently crept away leaving a few snipers behind to look like they were still there. ...
You will find all those answers and more when you read this biography of John Steinbeck, and then learn what happened to him in his own hometown. ... John Steinbeck was a man that most people in the world respected; yet he was disgraced and not welcome in his own hometown. ... I see things walking at night that it is not good to see." ... In 1960, he traveled through America with his poodle to write, "Travels with Charley." ...
"Pioneers such as Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Mississippi Fred McDowell helped to create a unique and powerful sound that is still popular today." ... Other transporters of the African influenced music were Fred Stone, who introduced the word ragtime in 1883, Scott Joplin, who in 1899 presented his own style of ragtime, Daniel Louis Armstrong, who breaks out with his unique style of African influenced music around 1918. ... As the artist formally known and The King Of Rock "n"Roll "Elvis" musical influences were the pop and country music of the time, the gospel music he hear...
Ronayne said " let us show them that if we are not strong enough to get our own work done, we are strong enough to prevent them from getting theirs". ... The long term aim was that farmers would own the land (peasant proprietorship). ... The Land League taught the Irish farmers to stand on their own feet and assert their rights. ... Land Courts had been set up to acess what the fair rents should be, but people were taking matters into their own hands. Shots were being fired into peoples windows, there were threatening letters sent and visits made in the dead of the night to people which the le...
Louis, Sam worked for several newspapers and eventually went to work for his brother's own newspaper company. ... While visiting New York, Charley Langdon was eager to have his family meet the "now- famous" Mark Twain. ... Ben Coon, an old river boat pilot, told Twain a story one night about a frog belonging to man who trained it to jump great distances, but the frog lost a race because his opponent secretly filled the frog with buck-shot before the race. ...
