The Quiet American
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Fowler constructs Pyle as a naпve young man who is an innocent victim of dogmatic and simplistic ideologies. Fowler sees American culture and Democracy as a corrupting influence on an innocent Pyle. This is exhibited th relational processes, where Pyle, as the carrier, is given attributes such as “innocent”, “young and ignorant and silly”. This innocence is highlight by contrasting it with the attribute of “the whole pack of them”, Fowlers serotypes of Americans.
Pyles corruption is seen in the single instance of his operating as a goal, where “they” are processed as having “killed” him. This construction of Pyle as corrupted by his environment is further solidified in Pyles role in material processes. The conceptual goal, which Pyle is acting upon “the east”, is processed in service of the ideological beneficiary “democracy”. The manner in which Fowler projects Pyles thoughts has Pyle, as senser, interpreting the reality of “a dead body” through simplistic ideas such as “a red menace”. This ultimately leaves us with a picture of Pyle as being possessed by good intentions corrupted by an ever-present conditioning.
The construction of Pyle in the 2nd text shares the same sensory groundings as the
Pyle of the 1st. However the two constructs change in terms of the revelations we gain of Pyle. While Pyle is altogether innocent in the 1st text, in the second his innocence is responsible for negative occurrence. This construction of Pyle negatively affects the world, where the Pyle in the first text mostly serves as a carrier. Further more the character of his actions is decidedly violent, as shown in his role as an actor in various material processes. For example the process “to catch” and its goal of “a few ministers” refer to the violence of the bike bomb and the civilian tragedy, which resulted.
The characterisation of Pyles innocence shows us a person who thanks to his beliefs doesnt see what is really going on in the world around him. The majority of relational (attributive) processes have Pyle as ignorant to the world around him, “he ought to be better informed, or he is “out of town”. This is reaffirmed by Pyle as a senser where for the first time he comes into contact with the consequences of his own actions.