How the mighty have Fallen, a talk on Fallen Angels

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Oh, hello there! Welcome to the first blog post I've made in quite some time. I'm sorry for the extreme delay, but I've struggled with my own existence all semester, and I'm sorry to say that I've come dangerously close to dropping out and living as a beekeeper many times, but for now I'm here!

Shifting gears slightly to the book we just read, I believe that "Fallen Angels" is better than most would give it credit for. I wasn't enthralled by the book in the beginning, but opposed to what Alan said the other day, I think it was written really well. True or not, I was just not a large fan of the setting itself. The Vietnam war, at least to me, isn't a point of extreme interest. However, I think that Walter Dean Myers really makes the most of the setting, partially because of his own relation to it.

The quote that I picked for us to discuss is from the titular Lieutenant Carroll, and speaks to the theme and tone of the book. "My father used to call all soldiers angel warriors... Because usually they get boys to fight wars. Most of you aren’t old enough to vote yet" (Myers, 44.) This, I believe, is the main crux of the book, and represents a real paradigm shift in the tonal consistencies previously found in the book. This quote shows the hopelessness and futility of war, as it's not fought by people who believe in their country's cause, it was a massacre of a generation, many of the men not even 18. He compared these soldiers to angels because in his father's eyes, they were already dead.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 11, 2016 at 9:18 AM

    I also agree that this book is really well written but was not a fan of the setting either. I didn't really feel that this book was something that many adolescents can relate to, because not all adolescents understand or even care about the army. I like the quote that you chose to talk about, and I found it interesting the way the term "fallen angels" is symbolic to the bible.

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