Fallen Angels

“We’re all dead and just hoping that we come back to life when we get into the world again.” The book “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers is the tale of a young man named Richard Perry to Vietnam. Perry is just a young man and so are many of his fellow soldiers. Throughout the story they all face many of the same feelings. Feelings of fear, comradeship, and losing a close friend.

All of the men face the overwhelming fear of war. Many times throughout the book they come face to face with death. They engage in firefights and even hand-to-hand combat in a few situations, all of which could have possibly been the last thing they did on earth. At one point Perry is shot and hit, he is taken to a hospital and is only has minor injuries, but he could have easily been killed. At the end of the book Perry and his friend, Peewee, are sent to the top of a ridge by themselves and a whole battalion of VC’s comes. They are forced to spend the night in a VC spider hole and narrowly escape being killed. All of the soldiers face this same fear of death.

The soldiers also all share the feeling of comradeship. When they are facing the death and destruction that they do everyday in the war they begin to feel extremely close to one another. They show this more towards the end of the book when they will risk their lives to save one another and when they vow to stand up for each other no matter what. The men are so close because they all understand each other and the fear they have. The don’t make fun of each other when they cry or anything like that because they all understand.

Another thing they all understand is the sorrow that follows losing a close friend in the war. In the very beginning of the book Perry loses a friend, Jenkins, because he steps on a mine right in front of Perry. The sorrow that follows is something that all the men must face. Throughout the book more close friends are killed in action and it becomes a thing that the men are used to. They all feel the same pain and understand what the others are going through.

In the book “Fallen Angles” by Walter Dean Myers, all of the characters face the common problems and feeling caused by being in a war. The fear of being killed at any moment is something that would terrify any person and they all learn to deal with it and understand each other. The comradeship is something