Fallen Angels

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Recommended: Essay the impact of war on literature and society

A seventeen year old boy named Richie Perry is a black high school graduate from Harlem. He travels to Vietnam to fight in the United States Army. When Richie leaves for Vietnam, he thinks about all the illusions about the war. While scared of war, he hopes that his medical profile he received for a knee injury will be processed and prevent him from combat. When Richie arrives in Vietnam he befriends Harold Gates, also called Peewee throughout the story. When Richie and his new company are stationed their sergeant assures they would encounter only easy, light work. When out on a patrol Richies friend and member of his army company Jenkins is killed by a landmine. Richie is deeply shaken about this event. Soon after Riches becomes sick and misses a patrol with his company. This causes him to be placed into another for a day to go on another patrol due to missing one. During this patrol his company open fires on a believed to be enemy position. Turn out that the enemy position was actually another company patrolling. This part plays a big toll in Richies thought process of Vietnam. platoon leader, Lieutenant Carroll, is killed during a combat mission. Richie then returns to his old company and finds himself in a new kind of mission. They are to defend the friendly village they’re giving supplies to so the Vietcong can’t take the supplies. During this mission a firefight breaks out and the platoon leader Lieutenant Carroll is killed. This shocks and hurts the entire platoon, Richie was then made to write a letter home to Lieutenant Carrolls wife and family. As hopeful peace talks are happening Richie confronts the uncomfortable question of what he will do when he returns home. For his family is too poor to send him to college, his fa...

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...t war at the home front and how it affect the soldiers in Vietnam. Another key factor which was fascinating in this book was, when companies such as Richies would go out on patrol and only kill one or two vietcong, the report would say twice as many were killed to make the reports of the company and the war effort look better. I also love the quote form Richie saying
“We spent another day lying around. It seemed to be what the war was about. Hours of boredom, seconds of terror.” I liked this quote because it seems like even today it’s like this, we have soldiers in Quate waiting around or “Hours of boredom” but when something does happen it doesn’t last to long so it’s the “seconds of terror”. This book also did an amazing job on not only describing the physical cost of war but the mental cost, and they conflicts with racism and friendships during the Vietnam war.

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