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
After two weeks in Chang ‘Dong, Emma notices that all of the elderly villagers have painfully bent backs. She asks some of the old people what causes this, but they insist it’s just a natural part of old age. Emma is unconvinced but lets the question go. However, after monsoon season, all of the old people spend their days sweeping the village with short-handled palm fronds, which requires them to stoop over to reach the ground. When Emma surmises that short-handled brooms cause their bent backs, one of the old people tells her all brooms have short handles, and good wood is too precious to use for longer handles anyway.
Emma’s observation that the old people are painfully bent over only occurs after she moves into the village, demonstrating how the proximity of living amidst a community allows one to recognize the local, everyday problems facing it. However, the old villagers’ insistence that bent backs are just a sign of old age, rather than a consequence of short brooms, suggests that people see many preventable problems as a fact of life, especially without an external perspective to reveal otherwise.
Themes
That evening, Emma brings the problem up with Homer and resolves to figure out a new broom handle that will spare the elderly people’s backs. She knows she can’t simply import handles, since “only things that people did for themselves would really change their behavior.” She searches for a suitable substitute for months until she finds a variety of long and firm reed that grows in the hills. Emma tells Homer to dig up several of the reeds by the roots, and she transplants them next to her home in the village.
Emma could simply import broom handles and solve Chang ‘Dong’s problem in the short term, even though it would be unsustainable. The fact that it takes her months to find a sustainable solution suggests that proper grassroots development is often slow and requires great patience to do properly but pays off in a way that quick fixes do not.
Themes
Later, while several neighbors are visiting, Emma cuts one of the reeds, ties it to a palm frond like a long handle, and silently begins sweeping her hut. The villagers realize that she is able to keep her back straight while sweeping, which none of them have ever seen before. When one of the villagers asks Emma where she found such reeds, she tells him that he may take one of her reeds or go find his own up in the hills. Later that day, she sees several elderly villagers taking a water buffalo to go find some long reeds of their own.
Importantly, Emma chooses to show the villagers her innovation by adopting it herself rather than tell them what they should do. In this way, Emma allows the villagers to preserve their own sense of agency and choose whether they want to adopt the new broom themselves after seeing the benefit it provides to her. This method nods to her earlier advice to Homer that the villagers must take ownership of an idea themselves and use it in their own way, or else it will not last.
Themes
Homer and Emma eventually move to another village and then back to Pittsburgh years later. Four years after finding a way to make long-handled brooms, Emma receives a letter from the villagers in Chang ‘Dong, expressing their thanks and declaring that there are far fewer bent backs in Chang ‘Dong than ever before. The villagers set up a small shrine in Emma’s honor.
Homer and Emma’s move suggests that they continue their grassroots development elsewhere once Chang ‘Dong is operating on its own. The villagers’ letter announces that the fewer elderly people suffer bent backs, suggesting that even seemingly small innovations such as Emma’s can have a significant impact over time.
Themes
Get the entire The Ugly American LitChart as a printable PDF.
