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John Colvin is an American O.S.S. agent and a powdered milk businessman. As a special agent, Colvin helps rid Sarkhan of their Japanese oppressors. He befriends a Sarkhanese man named Deong and makes him his combat partner, and develops a deep love for Sarkhanese people and culture. Colvin returns to America, but when he hears that Sarkhan is leaning toward Communism, he goes back to Sarkhan with a plan to import cattle and create a dairy industry, bolstering the local economy and strengthening the people against Communism. However, within weeks, Deong reappears and announces that he is a Communist, and he must stop Colvin. Deong frames Colvin for attempted rape and local women nearly beat him to death. Colvin is flown back to America to recover, though he eventually returns and successfully puts his dairy plan into action.
John Colvin Quotes in The Ugly American
The The Ugly American quotes below are all either spoken by John Colvin or refer to John Colvin. 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:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
“Look, John, I told you milk is part of history. If you get this crazy milk and cattle scheme of yours going, it could in time change the economic balance in Sarkhan.”
“What’s wrong with that? That’s what I want to do.”
“Nothing. It’s a good idea. Out in the bush we’ve talked it over a lot. But you’re the wrong person to be permitted to do it. If it succeeded, the Sarkhanese would believe that America was their savior.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
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John Colvin Character Timeline in The Ugly American
The timeline below shows where the character John Colvin appears in The Ugly American. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Lucky, Lucky Lou #1
...Embassy’s press attaché, enters Sears’s office and tells him that a mob beat up John Colvin and threw him on the Embassy steps, claiming he’d molested a young girl. Sears is...
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Colvin wakes in a hospital room, covered in bandages and filled with painkillers. He thinks about...
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Deong agrees to help and hides Colvin underwater beneath a rock in a shallow ditch. The Japanese soldiers arrive minutes later, cannot...
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Shortly before America liberates Sarkhan from the Japanese, Colvin teaches Deong how to poison people with ipecac. When the American marines are about to...
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Colvin grows impatient and feels that the United States is mismanaging the situation in Sarkhan. He...
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Deong tells Colvin to put the ipecac into his milk mixing machine, but Colvin refuses. When Colvin tells...
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Colvin knocks the gun out of Deong’s hand, but not before Deong shoots him in the...
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Sears visits Colvin in the hospital. Half an hour before, the local newspaper’s publisher called him and told...
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Chapter 5: Confidential and Personal
...in spite of the negative press, Sears has everything under control. He complains about John Colvin and Father Finian, newly arrived from Burma, and hopes that he will not cause trouble....
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Chapter 8: The Ambassador and the Working Press
...to offer any aid to Father Finian, advises the State Department not to allow John Colvin to return to Sarkhan, and writes a long letter listing his own accomplishments and claiming...
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Chapter 13: What Would You Do If You Were President?
...on how to lead the Americans in Sarkhan. U Maung Swe tells him about John Colvin, whom the Communists framed with false rape allegations. He admires Colvin’s ideas and recommends that...
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