The Quiet American

The moral of the story?

In a few words can somebody summarise the moral of the story?

Asked by
Last updated by anton w #1221483
Answers 3
Add Yours

I think that themes are more effective than morals. Still, if you need a moral, you might consider that violence is always bad for both a people and their country. Check out the GradeSaver themes page below:

Source(s)

http://www.gradesaver.com/the-quiet-american/study-guide/themes

I think there’s more to it than what I originally thought. I think it was more about arrogance and greed for power Yes I thought it could have an anti American tone but what he was there to represent wasn’t necessarily due to his nationality. Remember in the very beginning when the two men meet the American is reading a book that he seems to hide behind his back to maintain what we later learn is a facade (that he’s just a bumbling idealist doctor who’s there apolitically to heal). For a clumsy do-good physician that’s a fairly politically charged work to which he ascribes “the dangers of democracy “. And maybe he’s not the friend to either side, maybe he’s just an enemy outside. But not because he’s an American but because he’s an arrogant dishonest man who thinks he knows what’s best for a country he doesn’t know at all. *Greed for power, as I veer off topic a moment, is not to be attributed ethnicity or nationality as it is engrained in the human personality of some. I happen to think in America a good example are the 2 political parties and their stark differences inside one nation. The Democratic Party wants its people to rise up and achieve whatever their hearts may lead to and that the role of government is to oblige the freedom of equality and encourage a willingness of its richest citizens to share with those less fortunate. Civil rights are our entitlement say Democrats. That leaves the arrogance and the greed for power to the Republicans, and they do the job lapping up every bit for those entitled 1-2%. But what does that leave the rest of us 98% ...heading where and how? That’s what I see in this story anyway, that it was through gross arrogance that a visitor thinks he knows what’s best for a country to such an extent that he perpetuates atrocities anonymously to create a bigger monster up North he calls communism even when by doing so destroys the bodies of innocent women and children. The quiet man whether American or maybe despite of the fact that he’s an American is not the savior nor were the Americans in ‘the Vietnam conflict’ as it was called to avoid the war word (for almost 20 years); He was part of a monstrosity... Arrogant power-greedy outsiders who by villianizing the communists carried out unthinkable acts of violence to pad —maybe create—their self appointed role of rescuer . America might have waited another decade to officially join the south, but back in 1952 were pretty instrumental in escalating what might not have become the nightmare that lasted for decades otherwise..... anti “the ugly arrogant American” yes true but more to me it speaks of the evils of arrogance and greed for power and could have been a ‘quiet’ man from any country

having never read the novel, i think the movie is trying to explore the forces that can drive good people to do bad things