Fowler's Relationship With A Vietnamese Lover Character Analysis

It was the year 1952, in Saigon, South Vietnam, two friends, a British reporter/journalist, Thomas Fowler, and an American CIA agent, Alden Pyle, get trapped into a love triangle with a Vietnamese lover, Phuong. The relationship between Fowler and Pyle is strange because although they are friends, ultimately they are opponents due to the fact that they are both going after the same woman. In many ways, Fowler appears to look down upon the much younger Pyle.

Thomas Fowler visibly comes across as an opportunist, based on his inability to be with his wife who is back at their home in England and therefore results to starting a love affair with Phuong, who is thirty years his junior. Fowler is menacing, straightforward, and is exceptionally full of hostility. Fowler seems to lack emotion, with his regular use of opium being a numbing solution, “Opium makes you quick-witted – perhaps only because it calms the nerves and stills the emotions. Nothing, not even death, seems so important.” (Greene 17) He has disturbing memories from the war, opium possibly soothes this distress. Fowler’s relationship with Phuong is strictly physical to the readers, but his vulnerability begins to show through towards the end of the novel. He is not one to form an opinion, and that easily aggravates those in his life, such as his wife. “Why should I want to die when

Little does he know that Pyle is much more intelligent than he allows others to see. Although, Fowler and Pyle seem to be polar opposites, their ways of deceit allow them to share a common characteristic. Pyle traveled to Vietnam to work for the American Economic Aid Mission; this is a cover because his main objective is a CIA agent. Pyle is strongly determined to bring America’s form of government, democracy, to Vietnam and destroy their Communism. He believes in the need of a “Third Force” in Vietnam and strongly believes that General The is this