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FALLEN ANGELS The novel Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers was first published in 1988. The novel is about American soldiers fighting during the Vietnam War. Richie Perry, the protagonist and narrator, joins the army to escape his uncertain future. Perry tries to find himself but later he faces more confusing and traumatic life in Vietnam than the world he fled. The author shows the theme, the reality of war that the war is brutal but war movies show war as heroic and glorious, giving the whole society illusions about war. Perry finds the real reality of war in Vietnam after he finds it hard to communicate with his family back in the World. The novel starts off Richie Perry, an African-American who recruited himself to the army after graduating high school. Perry was sent to Vietnam to fight in the United States Army to protect South Vietnam from being conquered by the Communist of North Vietnam (the Vietcong). Perry joined the army to avoid his uncertain future because he wanted to be a writer so he had to go to college, which his family couldn’t afford. Perry’s family is extremely poor but his neighbors and friends thought he was going to college to become a writer. Eventually, Perry joined the army to escape from the questions being asked from the World. The army was where he tried to find himself and have something to do while receiving three meals a day and money. In basic training, Perry believes that his medical profile he has of an injured knee will prevent him from combat fighting and that there won’t be any real fighting going on. Perry became friends with Harold Gates (Peewee was the name he preferred), and Jenkins. They were assigned to the same squad and the sergeant assures them that they would do easy work because there isn’t much fighting in Chu Lai, the place of their company. Perry heard rumors that the Vietnam was going to end soon and he thought that he wouldn’t actually go into combat. Stepping on a mine during the squad’s first patrol killed Jenkins instantly. Perry was terrified of Jenkins death that Perry been talking to a few minutes ago before his death. Perry wanted to tell his family about the tragedy of Jenkins death but he finds himself unable to write, instead he wrote more about Peewee. As days go by, Perry sees their company commander, Captain Stewart, as selfish who was only concerned with increasing the amount of body counts to earn him a promotion as major. To increase the number of body count, Captain Stewart sends his squad to more dangerous missions. When Perry’s platoon leader, Lieutenant Carroll who was like the father of the soldiers in the squad, was killed in a blind combat mission, Perry begins a search of answers for fighting in Vietnam in the first place. As Perry searches for the meaning of war, he also searches himself. Perry wondered whether his reason of joining the army was selfish to escape from the hard life he had in Harlem, or unselfish to earn money for his brother, Kenny.
Approximate Word count = 1973
Approximate Pages = 7.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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