Alan Ruff - Fallen Angels

By -
“Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers is the semi-autobiographical tale of young Black man, Richie Perry, from Harlem who enlist in the Vietnam War in the late 1960’s.  Richie signs up for the Army because he can’t afford to go to college and doesn’t want to stay home and listen to his friends ask why he didn’t go.  He has been assured, and believes, that once his medical profile has been processed he won’t see any actual combat.  Delays in the processing cause Richie to be sent to the front.  He makes friends within his squad and builds a sense of comradery, all while beginning to question the realities of war.  The ugliness and brutality that he witnesses is not what he had expected when he arrived.  Upon his departure he realizes that the war will always be a part of him.  “My mind began to wander, as I knew it would, back to the boonies. (pg 309)”
                Myers does a good job of drawing out many different themes within this book.  The theme of “the loss of innocence” is one of the largest themes of the book and part of what makes this a good selection for older adolescent males.  This theme comes out as Richie deals with another prevailing theme “the reality of war.”  Part of Richie’s struggle is the romantic way in which war has been portrayed to him versus the harshness and randomness of actual battle that he is forced to confront.

                My early criticism of this book was the lack of description in much of the writing.  The lack of extra adjectives or descriptive phrases causes the sentences to be short and choppy.  An example would be the description of waiting for a helicopter on pg 163, “The rain dripped from the branches above us. I was cold, my knee ached, I was scared.  A half hour passed and no chopper.  We heard mortar rounds going off.  They seemed close. We all held our breath.”  After reading the whole book, I now believe that style works for this novel.  Another large theme within the novel is the romanticizing of war.  More poetic language might have caused the story to be too romantic.  This would be a good text to engage young males who aren’t avid readers.  The topics of the text and the elementary writing approach make it a good book to include on the classroom shelf for personal reading.

Comments

  1. Ms LopezNovember 11, 2016 at 3:12 PM

    "After reading the whole book, I now believe that style works for this novel. Another large theme within the novel is the romanticizing of war. More poetic language might have caused the story to be too romantic. "

    That is a great observation! I think you're right. When you mentioned the style, I started thinking about Ernest Hemingway and how a lot of his works have sparse language like that. He also wrote about war as well as relationships and the issues in them.
    I think that you're right about this being a good read for young men who don't particularly take much interest in reading. I feel like The World Made Straight is similar in that regard. But I think The World Made Straight probably had more poetic language. What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 14, 2016 at 8:57 PM

    I'm with you on this. I feel like the writing isn't descriptive because it shouldn't be. It reflects his state of mind during the war, and that's what makes it feel so authentic and raw. Good job, Alan.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C
Read more