Essay On Fallen Angels

During war many only picture the end goal, getting out of the situation alive. However, whether you're a citizen or a soldier it's hard to imagine the unforeseen damage and lingering effects it can have on an individual, specifically those who do survive. In the book Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers truly captures these consequences in which a soldier must live with such as the separation of family and loved ones as well as the exhausting stress that comes with war.
The Vietnam war was clearly one many people did not support and many of the soldiers put through that hellish experience had no option whether they were to be apart of the war or not. In the book we find the main character, Perry, often writing letters to his family at home or thinking of the things he wish he could say to them. This separation from family without option had a very significant toll on him and played a major role throughout the story. For example, Perry states "I knew Mama loved me, but I also knew when I got back, she would expect me to be the same person, but it could never happen. She hadn’t been to Nam. She hadn’t given her poncho to anybody to wrap a body in, or
This ultimately led to the stress of it all becoming quickly overwhelming to many soldiers which would leave very frightening and lingering effects as well as memories that would not soon leave them even after the war. In the story Perry is certainly not excluded from this and after a firefight in which he burned the enemies body's he states "the smell of burning flesh came quickly. I knew the smell wouldn’t leave me quickly, maybe it never would" (Myers 255). This inhumane and dreadful act Perry was put through and witnessed is certainly one that wouldn't be leaving him for quite some time due to the realism and outlandishness of it