Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ugly American, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Failure of the American Foreign Service
Communism vs. Capitalism
Grassroots Development
Self-Interested Philanthropy
Racism and Cultural Insensitivity
Summary
Analysis
In Vietnam, American engineer Homer Atkins sits in a room full of stuffy-looking, expensively dressed diplomats. Atkins is, by contrast, ugly and gnarled, and he enjoys that about himself, particularly his “ugly, strong hands,” which made him his personal fortune of three million dollars. Atkins tells the men in the room, again, that they don’t need roads and dams, they need practical solutions for alleviating hunger, things that Vietnamese people can make and use themselves. When a Vietnamese official says they want dams and roads instead, Atkins asks if any of the diplomats have actually been out to the rural countryside and visited the villages. They obviously haven’t.
The chapter title confirms that Homer Atkins as the titular “ugly American.” However, Atkins’s symbolic ugliness is not a condemnation, but rather an expression of his humble and practical nature. Homer is ugly because he works with his hands—he gets dirty and solves problems for himself. Atkins’s symbolic ugliness contrasts against the preened and expensively dressed officials around him, who never work with their hands and thus do not understand the practical problems of their own countries.
Themes
An American diplomat tries to end the meeting, but MacWhite, observing the meeting, speaks from the back of the room and says that he wants to hear the rest of what Atkins has to say. Atkins explains that their first step should be to identify needed resources that the Vietnamese can manufacture on their own. He points out that many villages sit on mineral deposits, and the villagers could easily be taught to manufacture their own bricks and building materials. A French diplomat angrily cuts in, exclaiming that a French company already makes all of Vietnam’s bricks, and creating competition for that business would “ruin” France and Vietnam’s relationship.
The French diplomat’s insistence that they cannot challenge the French monopoly on brick manufacturing suggests that France cares more about its own enrichment than it does about helping Vietnamese people. In other words, France prioritizes its own profits over Vietnam’s self-sufficiency and economic growth, suggesting that France is only philanthropic when it serves its own self-interest.
Themes
Atkins continues to outline his view of Vietnam’s true needs: a canning industry, small roads to give villagers access to the best soil. The other diplomats are furious that an engineer is advising on agriculture. Atkins points at the Frenchman and states that the French are so ignorant that they didn’t even know that Ho Chi Minh and his Communists built a road through the jungle all the way across Vietnam to ferry supplies. The French start shouting that it’s impossible to build a road through jungle. The meeting dissolves into chaos, and Atkins leaves.
Although Atkins’s development suggestions seem highly practical, the other diplomats are angry that an engineer dares to make economic or agricultural recommendations. Their anger suggests that such diplomats care more about protocol and their own egos than about actually helping Vietnamese villagers or coming up with practical, innovative solutions to common problems.
Themes
As Atkins walks away from the meeting, MacWhite catches up with him and offers to buy him a drink. In a café, Atkins tells MacWhite about the Communists’ road, and that the Vietnamese never told the French because “even the anti-Communists hate the French.” MacWhite asks if Atkins would be willing to move to Sarkhan to put his plan into action. The hillside villages are struggling to get adequate water to irrigate their crops, and they could use Atkins’ expertise.
Atkins refers to the Ho Chi Minh trail, an actual road that the Communists used to ferry supplies across the country during the Vietnam War. The French’s ignorance of its existence not only implies that they underestimate Vietnamese ingenuity, but also reflects how much the Vietnamese people hate the French (who colonized and occupied Vietnam for decades).
Themes
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Atkins starts making a sketch of some new device, and requests that, if he develops a solution, he’ll be allowed to share it freely with all the Sarkhanese people; the French always patent any new devices so they can collect royalties, and the villagers can thus never afford them. MacWhite assures him they will offer their knowledge for free. Atkins is obviously interested, and he loses himself in his sketch. MacWhite leaves him with a note stating that he will make arrangements for Atkins to move to Sarkhan as soon as possible.
Atkins’s charge that the French always patent their new developments to earn royalties off of villagers again suggests that the French care more for profit than they do for actually helping Vietnamese villagers prosper. MacWhite’s promise that they can freely distribute Atkins’s design indicates that they will take a far more democratic approach, prioritizing actual development over profit.
Themes
