"The Quiet American"How long can you sit on the fence and not get involved? How long before you're forced to choose sides? Thomas Fowler learns the answers to this dilemma the hard way. At the start of our story, Fowler describes himself as an objective observer, deliberately not taking sides, just reporting the facts. "My fellow journalists called themselves correspondents; I preferred the title of reporter. I wrote what I saw, I did not act - even an opinion is a kind of action. (20)" He even goes so far as to consume frequently opium. like not having an opinion on your own well-being. He got to the point where he felt that being alive was neither a good nor a bad thing. "Aren't we all better off dead? Opium reasoned to me. (10)" It seems that Fowler doesn't even develop an opinion on the relationship between Pyle and himself. In response to Vigot's statement that he was friends with Pyle, Fowler responds "I'm a friend... Why not? (9)". Thomas also maintains a relationship with Phuong, but only sees it from a physical and service perspective, without letting emotions get involved. Thomas uses Phuong for his body and to prepare his opium pipes. Even faced with the challenge of losing Phuong to Pyle, he only exaggerates his meaning to his wife back home and not to Pyle or Phuong. And in the end, Fowler only "wins her back" as a result of Pyle's death, not what he did. Fowler was not passing judgment on anyone. In trying to accurately describe Pyle to Vigot, Thomas said: "A quiet American, I summed him up precisely as I might have said 'a blue lizard,' 'a white elephant.' (9) "The last way Fowler decides to describe Pyle, even after preparing him to be killed, is in three words, "...... middle of paper ...... The import of Pyle's weapons and his response plan are truly causing so much devastation. Pyle still thought there had been a mistake in saying that it wasn't supposed to be a market day and that there was supposed to be a military march. Pyle was going to continue to act on his plane to intervene unless Fowler stopped him. So when do we choose sides, when do we stop being objective? Fowler remembers what Vigot said: “What had he said? Something that we all get involved with sooner or later in an emotional moment. (160) » When we are free and clear of the problem and it does not really arise. a rope in us; it is easy to maintain our objectivity. However, when we are finally pushed into a corner, with our backs against the wall, and something forces us to choose, we do it and we stop being indifferent. All quotes are from the Quiet American.