The Ugly American

by

Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Ugly American makes teaching easy.

Dr. Hans Barre Character Analysis

Dr. Barre is a translator working for the Americans in Vietnam. During Brown’s visit, Gray tells Barre to filter whatever the Vietnamese civilians tell him as he translates. Barre does so, hiding the fact that the Vietnamese civilians hate the French as much as the Communists, and that the French are not training Vietnamese soldiers.

Dr. Hans Barre Quotes in The Ugly American

The The Ugly American quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Hans Barre or refer to Dr. Hans Barre. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Failure of the American Foreign Service Theme Icon
).
Chapter 20 Quotes

“Can you imagine, Dr. Barre, the injury that might be done to American foreign policy if the Senator were to take seriously some of the nonsense uttered to him by a native?”

Related Characters: Arthur Alexander Gray (speaker), Senator Jonathan Brown, Dr. Hans Barre
Page Number: 230
Explanation and Analysis:

“Senator, [the Vietnamese woman] says it’s safer in the city. She says that the French will take care of her while the Communists would probably slaughter her. She says she would rather leave the Delta forever than live there under Communism,” Dr. Barre said.

What the woman had actually said was that the French and the Communists were both dogs. The Communists had cruelly slaughtered her eldest son six months before. The French, just as cruelly, had burned down her hut to open a firing lane through her village.

Related Characters: Dr. Hans Barre (speaker), Senator Jonathan Brown
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis:
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Dr. Hans Barre Quotes in The Ugly American

The The Ugly American quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Hans Barre or refer to Dr. Hans Barre. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Failure of the American Foreign Service Theme Icon
).
Chapter 20 Quotes

“Can you imagine, Dr. Barre, the injury that might be done to American foreign policy if the Senator were to take seriously some of the nonsense uttered to him by a native?”

Related Characters: Arthur Alexander Gray (speaker), Senator Jonathan Brown, Dr. Hans Barre
Page Number: 230
Explanation and Analysis:

“Senator, [the Vietnamese woman] says it’s safer in the city. She says that the French will take care of her while the Communists would probably slaughter her. She says she would rather leave the Delta forever than live there under Communism,” Dr. Barre said.

What the woman had actually said was that the French and the Communists were both dogs. The Communists had cruelly slaughtered her eldest son six months before. The French, just as cruelly, had burned down her hut to open a firing lane through her village.

Related Characters: Dr. Hans Barre (speaker), Senator Jonathan Brown
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis: