Bertrand Russell once said, “War doesn’t determine who’s right, only who’s left.” The Vietnam War was one in particular where soldiers often struggled with who the enemy was. War is too often thought of as something to be won, but this novel reveals it is simply something to be survived, and the shell of a person that is left will not be the same one that walked into battle. That is a jarring reality very prominent in Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. It is a lesson soldier Richard Perry learns all too well on his journey from innocent young boy to Vietnam veteran.
Have you a reader ever wondered about the realistic depiction of war: how the war is romanticized and how it can be an awful place to be? The author Walter Dean Myers shows us the depiction of the war in Vietnam the main character in the book Richard Perry a young boy from Harlem being thrown into the war because of his life at home and doesn't want to really deal with people. The book Fallen Angels is a realistic depiction of war. The book shows us some untimely deaths, graphic violence and the main protagonist inner thoughts and doubts. Through the novel Fallen Angels the depiction of war is shoved into the main characters face with graphic violence untimely deaths that occur and the
“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said to the United Nations General Assembly, on September 25th, 1961. This quote is saying that the killing of soldiers in war will soon destroy all. This relates to both stories because both soldiers regretted killing someone. In O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper” and Hardy’s “The Man He Killed” both works use plot, irony, and theme to portray the idea that war causes you to kill those you care or may have cared about.
The author employs imagery to express the theme that warfare often forces soldiers to reconsider their traditional notions of right and wrong. The author writes, “Sergeant Simpson took a grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it into the opening as hard as he could.” (page number 125) This shows that no matter who was down there he was willing to have them die to win this battle. Another example of this literary element is “ The woman's other child
War is the graveyard of innocence for boys who become men through the loss of humanity. The book “Fallen Angels,” by Walter Dean Myers, is a story about Richard Perry, a young man who mistakenly joins the Vietnam War to avoid the shame of not going to college. As the book goes on Perry discovers his mistake and in the process, not only loses his innocence, but also his humanity. Wars will always be the dark parts of our history and no war is devoid of horrors that can strip anyone of everything they are, and in war soldiers must use coping mechanisms to deal with these very apparent horrors.
The nature of war has always been a cruel and inhumane part of our world and its history. Many themes, such as desperation and trickery, play a large role in the development of the short story, “All The King’s Horses” by Kurt Vonnegut. However, what is most particularly interesting is how Vonnegut portrays war the story and is represented the most throughout the novel is the theme of how destructive war is and how impactful it can be on many lives.
In the novel Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, the main character is Richie Perry. At seventeen he graduated high school in Harlem, and he wanted to go to college, but his mother couldn’t afford to send him to college since she was an alcoholic. So he joined the army to escape his unfortunate future, but joining the army meant he had to leave his little brother Kenny, who saw him as a father figure since their father left when they were younger. Perry was sent to Vietnam and through his journey, he made lifelong bonds with many different people such as PeeWee, Monaco, and etc. Also in his journey, he suffers from mental and physical wounds. In the end of the book he was completely changed, he has lost his innocence, his sense of normalcy and morality, their hope, and his faith, and the
The two poems “Out, Out” and “Disabled” share similar points of view but have completely different structures. The poem “Disabled” was written in 1917 by a young man called Wilfred Owen. It expresses the bitter thoughts of a teenaged veteran who lost his legs in World War I. It describes the horrible effects of the brutal war and the hardships of disability. On the other hand, the poem “Out, Out” was written in 1916 by Robert Frost. The poem is about a child living in the hills of vermont doing wood working when he suddenly chops one of his hand off. At the end he dies a brutal death. These two poems both have an abundance of tragedy.
Timothy Findley's The Wars is a piece of modern literature which depicts the vividness of the First World war and its implications. The novel is unique in that it violates the normal chronological presentation of events by incorporating flashbacks, which are communicated through the perspectives of multiple characters. Also, the complexity of the novel lies in rigid connections between the major themes presented such as war, animals, and privacy. To begin, the loss of innocence is a prominent theme which inevitably arises from the background of war. Intuitively, the loss of innocence can be defined as any process that helps to widen the observation of cruelties, tragedies, and injustice which are embedded in the world. The loss of innocence
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front soldiers admit themselves in the war and struggle more than just staying alive. Oftentimes their lives as regular humans are threatened. Remarques purpose in writing this novel was to show how the war dehumanizes the soldiers,how comradity is created during war, and how their life after war is changed.
Horrors of war is a crucial theme that is repeated through most of the literature analyzed throughout this tragic unit, and the effects of the horrific war takes an extreme
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller looks back on the events of World War II, and points out the insanity of war. The book is centered around Captain John Yossarian, a member of an Air Force bomber crew stationed on the island off the coast of Italy. The novel features a satirical tone as it points out the absurdity of the military and war. One character interaction between Yossarian and Doc Daneeka is central to the purpose of the book. Yossarian in an effort to avoid flying asks Doc Daneeka to ground him on the basis of insanity. Doc Daneeka, however, refuses based on Catch-22. The mysterious Catch-22 states that a man would only be insane if he wanted to continue to fly and face the danger of war; however, in order to be removed from duty due to insanity
Throughout history, soldiers on the front lines of war have been glamorized as heroes that defend their nations from foreign evils. A common image of these soldiers are everyday people that have risen to the occasion of war and gone out in a blaze of glory. The novel Slaughterhouse-Five, however, takes a strong stance against this idea. The author, Kurt Vonnegut, structures the lives of various soldiers throughout the novel to detract from their heroic qualities, uses incoherent language to emphasize the idea that war is incomprehensible, and structures the novel to emphasize the idea that the glory and heroism of war are illusions.
The memory of that night still haunts Alex’s mind like an endless swarm of winter flies that hover endlessly outside the window plane of his UN sponsored rebel rehabilitation camp. It was dark, and he was sound asleep when a large knock at the porch woke him up. Cuddling within his torn blankets he could hear the door crack as his father opened up the door. There were some low murmurs; then he heard his father pleading innocence and the thundering sound of three deafening shots and then there was silence.
With war and violence, you have to imagine how killing another man is the right choice, and after a while you start to wonder if any decision you make is the right choice, or if there even is a “right” within all the madness. In order to make certain choices people will tend to dehumanize you, or anyone who is committing a violent act. Heller, however, does not rationalize the soldiers to be savages, but instead shows how death and violence occur in daily life. This type of anti-blood lust violence makes it so it cannot be easily condemned or dismissed. In short, the soldiers in this novel and war time period feel little emotion, even when tragedy strikes. Characters such as Aarfy, who raped and murdered a girl, proves the fact that many of the men do not care about anything, let alone the brutality and violence of the war itself. However, for one character the level of desensitization that Aarfy, as well as many of the other men, have reached is too much to bear. Yossarian is one of the only characters who has not grown accustomed to the violence immersing him, leaving him to be considered mad by the other men in his squadron as well as everyone else in the