Manette Tanelus Fallen Angels

By -


Fallen Angels for me was a very telling story with a raw feel and great exposure into the mindset of a young Vietnam War soldier. The main character (Richie) was easy to relate to because he had thoughts like many teenagers our age and he did not really know what he wanted to with his future.

What struck me about him trying to find himself was the different ways he criticized himself based on others and his opinion. That is a very self aware quality to have. He begins innocently using the army as a way out "I wanted to win the tournament, to walk away from the streets I had been raised in with head high, a winner"(15). I think this is the first time in the novel that Richie starts criticizing himself, his life, and the people around. He goes on to criticize his religious beliefs and his relationship with god later on "I felt guilty about waiting until I got to Nam to think about god. On the other hand I didn't want to not be close to God"(94).

Most Importantly, he started questioning the purpose of life. Whether it be his own life, his close friends' lives, the enemy's life, and the lives of people he barely knew fighting alongside him in the war. He learned at the beginning his life was extremely Important to him and that he was willing to pray for it and in fear he would sometimes hide from danger to save himself. He also learned the enemy had no name unless you gave it a name, and that the less you know someone the less it hurts. For Example, In regards to Turner, he stated "We didn't talk about the wounded man or about Turner, who died. I think we were glad that we hadn't known him better"(167).

At the end I think that Richie learned one thing from war that takes us all years or a lifetime to learn. He made the conclusion that everyone's life mattered, and that even the enemy had a family, so nobody was really right or wrong in war, just fighting for different sides.
One of his final thoughts was "I just wanted God to care for them, to keep them whole"(309).

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 11, 2016 at 6:10 PM

    Wow, what a powerful connection. I absolutely love your thoughts on this book. I hadn't taken Perry's relationship with God into account. That is an excellent theme in the book. I think that his criticism of his younger self is something that all adolescents will eventually come to do. I, too, question myself, both formerly and presently. But I think the way Richie does it here makes him a stronger, harder, and more mature man. The questions of God come frequently in the novel, and I'm not sure how I've overlooked that. I'm glad you made that apparent to me. I know I could not fight in the war because of what you mentioned about Richie's realization: everyone's life DOES matter. I can barely kill a bug, and I cannot imagine having to pull the trigger on a man or woman whose family may be out there, expecting them to come home. Again, this blog was very well written with a powerful message. Thank you

    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