50 pages • 1-hour read
The Third Man
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Essay Topics
How does Greene’s description of Vienna set the story’s scene as a thriller and a story of moral ambiguity?
Consider Colonel Calloway. How is he both like and unlike Rollo Martins and Harry Lime?
How is Anna Schmidt more like Lime than Martins is?
What is the role of genre in the plot, particularly Rollo’s devotion to Westerns and the moral universe of corrupt law enforcement and upright vigilantes?
How does Martins’s behavior with Crabbin make him a less straightforward hero?
How does Martins become more cynical as the story progresses, particularly in how he understands Lime and Lime’s friends?
What is the role of religion in the story, particularly in Martins’s understanding of Lime?
How do Martins’s childhood and adolescence haunt him throughout the story?
Consider how Martins treats Anna. Does he see her as a person in her own right, as a replacement for Lime, or as a symbol of love and romance?
In what ways is Harry Lime both sympathetic and reprehensible? Is it fair to characterize him as the villain of the story?
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