The Ugly American

by

Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer

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Ugliness Symbol Analysis

Ugliness Symbol Icon

Homer Atkins’s ugliness, which makes him the “ugly American” of the novel’s title, symbolizes his practicality, humility, and excellent work ethic. Atkins attends a meeting in Vietnam with a number of French, American, and Vietnamese officials, all of whom are clean-cut and expensively dressed. Atkins, by contrast, is stocky, wears wrinkled khaki clothing with no tie, and his hands are scarred and blackened from years of manual labor and machine oil. Although Atkins feels out of place in such a setting, he is proud of his ugliness, particularly of his strong and ugly hands, since he’s made three million dollars with those hands and knows that he could make more. Atkins’s ugliness thus sets him apart from the other Foreign Service workers by signifying that he works with his hands and spends his time outside in the rural parts of Vietnam rather than in luxurious, clean mansions.

In the book, ugliness does not only apply to Atkins. When Atkins meets the Sarkhanese mechanic Jeepo, Atkins immediately likes him because he can see that Jeepo is as ugly as himself—Jeepo, too, is independent and practical and works with his hands to solve problems. This extension of ugliness to other characters and the novel’s title, The Ugly American, suggests that such “ugly” people—that is, people who aren’t afraid to dig in and get real work done and don’t care if they or their jobs look impressive on the outside—are precisely the type of people who should make up the Foreign Service, since they will be humble and work hard to solve real problems with real solutions.

Ugliness Quotes in The Ugly American

The The Ugly American quotes below all refer to the symbol of Ugliness. 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 17 Quotes

[Atkins’s] hands were laced with big, liverish freckles. His fingernails were black with grease. His fingers bore the tiny nicks and scars of a lifetime of practical engineering. The palms of his hands were calloused. Homer Atkins was worth three million dollars, every dime of which he had earned by his own efforts; but he was most proud and confident of his ugly strong hands. Atkins knew he could always make a living with them.

Related Characters: Homer Atkins
Related Symbols: Ugliness
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:

“You don’t need dams and roads […] Maybe later, but right now you need to concentrate on first things—largely things that your own people can manufacture and use. I don’t know much about farming or city planning or that kind of thing; but I can tell you that your people need other things besides military roads. You ever hear of a food shortage being solved by people building a military highway designed to carry tanks and trucks?”

Related Characters: Homer Atkins (speaker)
Related Symbols: Ugliness
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
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Ugliness Symbol Timeline in The Ugly American

The timeline below shows where the symbol Ugliness appears in The Ugly American. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 17: The Ugly American
The Failure of the American Foreign Service Theme Icon
Grassroots Development Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Chapter 18: The Ugly American and the Ugly Sarkhanese
Grassroots Development Theme Icon
...brings back a short, stocky Sarkhanese man named Jeepo (because he fixes jeeps). Jeepo is “ugly,” and Atkins immediately likes him. Jeepo explains the depth of his mechanical experience, which is... (full context)