49 pages • 1 hour read
Walter Dean MyersFallen Angels
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Importance of Friendship and Camaraderie Between Soldiers
Fallen Angels explores the significance of friendship and camaraderie among soldiers through Perry’s experience fighting in the Vietnam War. The wild and raging war serves as the backdrop to dive into the deep bonds that form between soldiers in the face of adversity. The novel portrays the soldiers relying on friendships that solidify as they try to navigate the horrors that they encounter during combat and in their day-to-day lives.
Perry forms strong friendships with the members of his squad: Peewee, Monaco, Johnson, Lobel, Walowick, and Brunner. These friendships, while formed abruptly and out of necessity, become life lines between the characters that provide them with support and a sense of understanding and belonging in the midst of a violent and confusing world. For example, after contemplating the morality of killing a Viet Cong soldier, Perry cries, unsure of whether he’s done the right thing. Peewee reassures him that if he hadn’t killed the soldier, Perry would be the one who had been killed. Peewee, noticing that Perry is still deeply upset, wordlessly lays with him in his bunk and holds him until they both fall asleep. Peewee’s actions illustrate the depth of care and intimacy that exists between soldiers.
The camaraderie shared among soldiers often functions as a source of strength and solace as they take comfort in their shared experiences. They share stories of their lives back home, joke and laugh together, and talk about their hopes and desires for the future to inspire them to keep moving forward. They remind each other that they have lives to return to, and that is why they are fighting. In the novel, Monaco receives a letter from his girlfriend asking him to marry her when he returns home. The squad votes for whether or not Monaco should marry her, and the majority vote in favor of the engagement. Monaco states that “[y]ou guys are all invited to the wedding. I’ll plan it so that the wedding will be after the last guy in the squad leaves Nam” (169), highlighting the significance of these bonds within these soldiers’ lives. Monaco later tells Perry, who is being sent back to the United States, that he needs to buy a tuxedo for his wedding. This subplot suggests that friendship on the battlefield is significant because it gives the soldiers something immediate to live for.
The friendship of these soldiers transcends social boundaries like race and sexuality. They develop brotherly bonds, united by a common cause and shared sacrifice. Myers portrays these relationships overcoming social barriers twice within the novel. First, Johnson tells Perry that their new sergeant was questioning whether Lobel is gay, to which Johnson states that he ignored the man because “[a] man in Nam fighting by my side is a man fighting by my side. I don’t care what he’s doing in bed” (235), which displays the unwavering bonds between these men who fight side by side. The introduction of Sergeant Dongan also heightens racial tensions within the squad as he places the Black members of the squad in more dangerous positions. Lobel approaches Peewee and Perry to tell them that he would be on their “side” if racial issues continued to occur with their new sergeant (227). These two instances of the soldiers crossing social divides to stand up for their brothers in arms represent the importance of friendship amongst soldiers. Myers suggests that such camaraderie reminds soldiers of the good within the people for whom they risk their lives.
Finally, friendship functions as a coping mechanism for those who face the horrors of combat on a daily basis. Monaco, the squad’s point man, experiences flashbacks and hallucinations in the middle of the night; he believes that he sees a pair of Viet Cong soldiers kidnapping an American soldier. The squad immediately springs into action after Monaco shoots his gun, trying to comfort him: “When they saw that Monaco was okay, Lobel and Brunner walked him over to the mess tent to get some coffee” (264). Immediately afterward, Walowick confides in Perry that he too experienced something similar to Monaco, and Perry tells him that he understands despite never having experienced it himself. The squad helps each other to find strength and acceptance. In their moments of desperation and vulnerability, they find refuge in each other’s presence, seeking a sense of security that might otherwise be lost.
The Psychological Impacts of War
Fallen Angels offers an exploration of the psychological impacts of war on those who fight it. Told from the perspective of a 17-year-old soldier, the novel delves into the lives and experiences of the young men fighting in the war as they try to navigate the harsh realities of combat and loss. Myers portrays the toll that the war takes on the soldiers’ mental health through Perry’s experience and his observations of soldiers around him.
One of the central psychological impacts of the war is the loss of innocence. Perry and the members of his squad are all young men, aged between 17 and 23. Perry and his squad are abruptly thrown into Vietnam, where they witness death and destruction first hand. Within a few days of being in Vietnam, Perry witnesses his first death, stating that, “[s]eeing [Jenkins] lying there like that, his mouth and eyes open, had grabbed something inside my chest and twisted it hard…I didn’t know what to feel” (43), depicting his inability to process what he has seen. Jenkins’s death follows Perry throughout the novel and becomes a central part of his growing fear and paranoia on and off of the battlefield. Perry grapples with the brutality he sees and begins to question his place within the war; his concept of right and wrong quickly become muddied.
The novel also explores trauma and how it impacts soldiers’ daily lives. Perry exhibits paranoia and is in a constant state of alert. He tries to explain this feeling, stating that, “[o]n the way to the chopper I found myself holding my breath. I kept thinking of the noise I heard when Jenkins got it. By the time we took off I was panting” (50), portraying Perry’s paranoia and consistent fear. The novel also explores flashbacks and nightmares through Perry’s experience with intrusive images after he witnesses members of Charlie Company kill their own peers after mistaking them for Viet Cong soldiers. Monaco and Walowick both have flashbacks in which they believe that they relive traumatic memories despite being in a different location and time. Myers’s portrayal of the psychological aftermath of war highlights the way war creates trauma even if one leaves physically unharmed.
Furthermore, the novel also highlights the impact of war on personal identity. As Perry and his squad face violence and death at every corner, they are forced to contemplate the ethics of their actions and their roles in the war at large. Perry, after killing a Viet Cong soldier, is unable to determine if killing the soldier was the right thing to do. Despite Peewee’s words of reassurance, Perry continues to be deeply upset. Perry, who had seen himself as the “hero,” begins to wonder if there really is such a thing in the middle of a war. He writes a letter to his brother, stating with uncertainty that, “[m]aybe when we all got back to the World and everybody thought we were heroes for winning it, then it would seem right from there” (269-70). The brutality of the war forces Perry and the members of his squad to question who they are and what they are capable of, causing much internal conflict and confusion amongst the soldiers.
The Ambiguity of War
Myers contemplates the morality of war, highlighting how it is often morally ambiguous through the complex moral dilemmas faced by soldiers. Throughout Myers’s narrative, he examines the conflicting emotions and viewpoints surrounding war, and he reveals the blurry lines between the definitions of good and evil.
Perry experiences character development throughout the novel that reflects his disillusionment with the war and his confusion about the role he plays within it. In the beginning of the novel, when asked why he chose to enlist in the army for a TV interview, Perry states that, “we either defended our country abroad, or we would be forced to fight in the streets of America” (77); he believes that America is doing the right thing by fighting the war against communism in Vietnam rather than within its streets. However, as Perry begins to experience the gruesome reality of the war, he begins to question his beliefs and the morality behind the conflict, stating that “the dead Vietnamese soldier, his body sprawled out in the mud, was no longer a human being. He was a thing, a trophy. I wondered if I would become a trophy” (85). This shows how he is no longer able to see the war as a fight between heroes or villains but between those who would kill and those who would die; the lines became increasingly blurred. Perry learns that both sides kill and both sides are made up of people trying to survive, making the line between good and evil ambiguous. Perry’s inner conflict reflects the ambiguity of war, as individuals who are thrust into such a highly complex and violent environment are forced to confront their ideals and beliefs.
The ambiguity of war is further exemplified through Perry’s squad’s interactions with the Vietnamese civilians they attempt to “pacify.” As Perry’s squad meets the people in a small Vietnamese village, they befriend them, noticing that they are just as afraid of the war as the people who are fighting it. Later, when the squad returns to the village, they are forced to retreat by Viet Cong forces, and Perry watches as artillery fire destroys the village and the people within it indiscriminately. Perry’s shock is illustrated by his claims in his letter to his brother Kenny that, “[s]aying that you were trying to stop Communism or stuff like that was different than shooting somebody” (189). The novel hence critiques the broader aim of the Vietnam War and makes the American crusade against communism an ambiguous aim that no longer justifies the violence in the minds of the soldiers. After killing a Viet Cong soldier, Perry’s view of the war shifts completely, and he begins to wonder if they are being sent to fight just for the sake of killing.
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By Walter Dean Myers
