Quiet American

“We all get involved in a moment of emotion then we cannot get out. War and love – they have always been compared” (152). In The Quiet American, Fowler calls Pyle romantic. Being a romantic, it is his emotion, which drives him to act, not his reason. And acting upon emotions without any reasonable though can lead to abolition. Without thinking of the consequences, Pyle uses his heart and not his head to make decisions. The Third Force and his relationship with Phuong both show his view of something excellent and perfect, but foreshadow his destruction. Because of his romantic ideals, Pyle sees what he wants to see which causes him to side with his emotion to overcome his reason and which ultimately leads to his downfall.

The impact of the Third Force on Pyle causes him to act upon his emotions without thinking of the outcomes. York Harding proposes a solution where a Third Force can balance out the two conflicting forces, in this case, the Communists and the Non-Communists. Pyle takes this idea and runs with it as he uses his “Economic Aid Mission” as a front to provide plastics to General The’. General The’, to Pyle, is an ideal leader of the Third Force, and that is why Pyle follows him without knowing the consequences

As Fowler sees it, Harding is "a superior sort of journalist--they call them diplomatic correspondents. He gets hold of an idea and then alters every situation to fit the idea. Pyle came out here full of York Harding's idea. Harding had been here once for a week on his way from Bangkok to Tokyo. Pyle made the mistake of putting his idea into practice. Harding wrote about a Third Force. Pyle formed one--a shoddy little bandit with two thousand men and a couple of tame tigers. He got mixed up."
Fowler tries to warn Pyle about the hazards he faces, and tells the young American, "We are the old colonial peoples, Pyle, but we've learnt a bit of reality, we've learned not to play with matches. This Third Force--it comes out of a book, that's all....