Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fallen Angels, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
War, Trauma, and Dehumanization
Perseverance and Heroism
Race, Identity, and Belonging
Reality and Fiction
Faith and Hope
Summary
Analysis
One day, Walowick gets a course catalog from the college he wants to go to after the war, back home in Illinois. Everyone has opinions about what he should do with his future. He also has a newspaper full of stories about young men back home burning their draft cards. Anyone who refuses to stand up for his country, opines Brunner, is either “a faggot or a Commie;” and he betrays the men already risking their lives in Vietnam. Brew confesses that he almost ran away to Canada when his number came up, but he was afraid to go. His confession shakes Perry’s nerves, because he understands: sometimes it’s harder to stand alone than to go with the crowd, even when going with the crowd could get you killed.
The squad members’ opinions about Walowick’s future point towards their entwined emotional lives; bereft of the support of their loved ones at home and feeling abandoned and used by their commanders, they turn to their relationships with each other to find purpose and meaning in their lives. This sense of mutual obligation and support is why Brunner critiques draft dodgers. But the Charlie Company friendly fire incident earlier argued that uncommitted soldiers can be even more dangerous than the enemy. Perry, who struggles to come up with a convincing explanation for why he’s actually there, and who worries about what it means to be a hero, takes a more nuanced view, respecting those who have the courage to stand up for their convictions, even if he doesn’t agree with them.
Themes
That night, Vietnamese forces hit the camp with a rocket attack. Perry wakes up to the sound of explosions and his own screaming. He scrambles with everyone else into the bunker. When the barrage ends, Simpson shouts for someone to send up a flare and for the soldiers to look for sappers—Vietnamese suicide squads. In the aftermath of the attack, Captain Stewart tells Simpson that they’re not hitting the enemy hard enough and will have to make greater efforts. He wants desperately to get a high enough body count to earn his promotion. Simpson only wants to survive the last 62 days of his time in Vietnam.
The attack on the base shatters Perry’s previous (if incorrect) feeling of safety in his hooch; no place is safe. Captain Stewart’s response focuses not on the needs of his soldiers for assurance but on his own desire for promotion. The disconnect between his motives and Simpson’s points to the sense of betrayal many soldiers in this conflict feel at the hands of military leadership that seems willing to sacrifice them pointlessly.
Themes
Unable to sleep, Perry sits outside of the bunker. Johnson joins him, and he asks what Perry thinks of “them protestors” back home who oppose the war. Neither he nor Perry thought much about the cause they signed up to fight for before they joined. But they both spend a lot of time now wondering why they’re here. Johnson wants to know if Perry thinks still they’re the good guys, and Perry answers that someone back home must know what they’re doing. Johnson says they’re in Vietnam killing people to show that America “gonna do it if it got to be done.” Inside, Peewee has the bright idea to spray the mosquito netting with insect repellant for extra protection. Perry climbs into his bunk and closes the net, but when Peewee sprays the repellant, it chokes Perry. Peewee says he thought that might be a problem, but he had ignored it.
This is one of a few moments in which Johnson seems to give voice to the novel’s claims, in this case, that the brutality of the war derives at least in part from the loss of purpose. In a way, both Perry and Johnson seem to envy the draft dodgers their sense of certainty. Having committed to fight, for reasons that neither can fully articulate, they’re stuck with the killing until America proves its point. They both must keep going forward, despite their fears and doubts. Peewee’s attempt to fix the mosquito net provides a metaphor for the Vietnam War more generally: despite the apparent superiority of American training and equipment (the net), Vietcong guerrillas have proven surprisingly effective at wreaking havoc and damage (the mosquitos that continue to harass the soldiers). Peewee’s escalation takes a greater toll on Perry (representing the waves of soldiers being sent to the country) than the mosquitos.
Themes
