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
In the supply hut, the clerk takes a body bag off a tall stack and hands it to Perry. Perry asks how many bags the base has on hand but gets no answer. He knows the answer anyhow: enough to indicate that they expect a lot of guys to need them. He takes it back to where Jenkins’ body lies in the dirt, and watches while other soldiers zip Jenkins’ body into it. Another soldier in the squad, a little Italian kid named Monaco, tries to comfort Perry, but doesn’t know what to say. Perry feels numb. After a while, Lieutenant Carroll rounds up the squad and leads them in a prayer for Private Jenkins and all the “angel warriors that fall.” The next morning, Perry asks why Carroll calls the soldiers angels. Carroll replies it’s because “they get boys to fight wars.”
The stack of body bags highlights the seriousness of this war: people are dying, and “they”—the impersonal powers that be—deploy their troops expecting a significant number of deaths. In contrast, Lieutenant Carroll shows deep concern for the dead Jenkins, even though he barely knew the man. In doing so, he humanizes the soldier and honors his sacrifice in a way far more meaningful than anything “they” do elsewhere. Moreover, as Carroll bluntly reminds readers, most of those soldiers are, in fact, still teenagers who don’t deserve to have their lives cut off in this abrupt and brutal way.
Themes
Lieutenant Carroll hangs out in the hooch with the squad for a while, checking their supplies and morale. A Black solder called Brewster—whom the guys usually call “Brew”—tells Carroll that he got a hopeful letter from Virginia Union theology school. Carroll confesses that he almost followed his brother into theology school, and when the Polish soldier Walowick, says he still could, Carroll replies that he has too many doubts about his own worthiness now. After he leaves, Peewee observes that Carroll doesn’t look much like a “holy guy,” and Walowick tells them how Carroll changed after the squad got split in half while clearing a road. One half got pinned in a ditch, and as dark fell, Carroll “went wild” and stormed across the road and “wasted” all the “charlies.” That day, he showed his true color—his willingness to put his “ass on the line” for others.
Not only does Perry note which soldiers are Black, he also tracks the ethnicity of the white soldiers—Italian Monaco, Polish Walowick. This heightened awareness of identity suggests that the army isn’t quite the bastion of equality that Perry hopes it is. Despite a common identity as soldiers, distinctions and hierarchies persist. Still, Walowick’s story suggests the ways that the soldiers’ shared experience generates bonds that overcome racial distinctions: the soldiers can only rely on each other for protection. And it highlights the brutality of a war that turns peace-loving men like Carroll into berserk warriors.
Themes
Perry writes a letter to Mama about Jenkins’ death. He tears it up. He doesn’t want to upset her or admit that he feels bad—but also glad that he didn’t die instead. He starts over. Later that day, the platoon brings in a Vietcong fighter for questioning, and when Peewee discovers the enemy in the storage hooch, they strike up a friendly conversation, at least until the VC fighter tries to escape. Peewee gets in trouble, but he’s glad he told the fighter about Chicago; he wants to be on their side if they ever make it to America. Lobel, another squad soldier, says they could end the war faster if they just took the “charlies” to Hollywood and started making war movies, using them as extras to help them assimilate. Brunner says that Lobel’s idea is a “fag solution,” and the two bicker.
This series of incidents all hinge on the value of a human life. Perry’s shame over his relief that Jenkins died instead of him shows that he considers all lives inherently valuable. The war will traumatize him, in part, because killing goes against this instinct. Likewise, Peewee gets in trouble for treating the VC fighter as a human being rather than an enemy. In contrast, Brunner, who’s been in combat for longer, quickly and reflexively dehumanizes Lobel, denigrating his sexual orientation, when they disagree.
Themes
The next morning, the soldiers listen to heavy artillery up north while Monaco and Simpson argue about whether squirrel hunting is a sport. Monaco points out the unfair advantage an armed, 200-pound human has against a two- or three-pound, unarmed squirrel. If a man needs a rifle against a squirrel, what’s he gonna use against a bear, Monaco asks, artillery? Brew and Lobel suggest hitting a bear with some white phosphorus then calling in an airstrike, or just finishing the animal off with a few frag grenades.
On the surface, the argument about the proper way to hunt squirrels seems humorous. But it quickly devolves into a dark fantasy as the soldiers imagine using the tools of war against harmless and innocent woodland creatures. To protect themselves from feeling guilty, they turn their violence into a joke. But the death that surrounds them on all sides cannot be joked away, and they all live with its psychological consequences.
Themes
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That day, the squad goes to a nearby village to do public relations work, or “Chieu Hoi,” which Peewee calls “chewing the whores.” Everyone seems relaxed, but Perry is scared—just like he is every other time he leaves the hooch. When they reach the landing zone, the departing squad warns them that all the village females are either under six or over 60. Simpson adds that all the men will be gone, fighting either with the Vietcong army or the Americans’ allies, the South Vietnamese army (ARVN). Most Vietnamese men seem to join less out of ideological conviction than the desire to avoid being punished for not fighting.
Peewee’s jokes and the departing squad’s “warning” that none of the village females are interesting as potential sexual partners point towards the casual dehumanization that ultimately make it easier for the Americans to turn on them with deadly force. So does Simpson’s assertion that it can be almost impossible to tell a Vietnamese friend from a Vietnamese foe. But ultimately, history shows that this kind of casual disregard for others’ humanity increases the soldiers’ trauma rather than reducing it.
Themes
The soldiers hand out first aid supplies and food to Vietnamese people in an attempt to “make them love [the Americans],” Captain Stewart says with a smirk. Perry and Lobel give chocolate bars to a Vietnamese woman with a girl so tiny and pretty that Perry thinks she looks like a doll. The girl clings to Lobel and Perry, and they carry her around the village with them. Lobel eats the rice a villager offers him, but Perry refuses, afraid of being poisoned. Lobel describes how he would turn the village into a movie set. He says he would bring the little girl, An Linh, back to Hollywood and make her a star, but she’d need a new name. They decide on Arielle. Peewee buys a bottle of wine from a villager for $2 and drinks it on the spot. His life goals, he says, include drinking wine from a bottle with a cork, making love to a foreign woman, and smoking a cigar.
The “Chieu Hoi” initiative, roughly translated as “open arms,” was the Americans’ attempt to dissuade Southern Vietnamese people from aligning with the communist Northern Vietnamese forces and government. By its nature, it recognizes the human dignity and needs of the Vietnamese citizens. And it seems to work, at least for the American soldiers: despite his earlier crass jokes, Peewee responds to the villagers’ humanity, especially An Linh (though deciding to rename her is also inherently dehumanizing, so this isn’t entirely straightforward). Peewee’s life goals and Lobel’s idea of making An Linh into a child star suggest that the still untested young men haven’t yet fully lost their idea of the war as a movie.
Themes
Later, as the helicopters take the soldiers back to the camp, Brunner says that the villagers will probably be “having supper with the VC” by the time they get back. Johnson demands to know why “VC” has the same tone as the n-word in Brunner’s mouth, and Brunner replies that Johnson is hearing things. Simpson shuts them both up.
Johnson doesn’t take issue with Peewee’s use of the word “Cong,” but dislikes Brunner’s, pointing towards Johnson’s heightened sensitivity to the racism and prejudice that exist in the army. The fact that he can’t see how similar Peewee’s earlier use of the slur is to Brunner’s—in both cases, it serves to dehumanize and belittle the Vietnamese citizens—further suggests how war encourages all soldiers to ignore their adversaries’ humanity. In this case, Brunner can’t see his own blind spot.
Themes
Perry and Peewee eat the night’s dinner—roast beef, mashed potatoes, and carrots—outside, under a tree, while bugs crawl up their legs. Simpson joins them. Perry tells Simpson that he’d rather be home in New York City. Peewee sarcastically calls camp the best place he’s ever been. He especially likes the bugs, which are as loyal as dogs—they keep him company when he sleeps, wakes, and eats. Simpson warns them that Captain Stewart wants to be promoted before his tour ends on March 15. For that, he needs the squad’s body count to be higher.
Peewee’s jokes about the Vietnamese bugs being more loyal than dogs yet again points towards his sarcastic, irreverent character. But it also offers readers a pointed reminder of how miserably uncomfortable most soldiers’ experience in Vietnam was, even at moments when they weren’t in mortal danger. And why are they being asked to endure this discomfort? Simpson suggests that their actions ultimately serve no higher or more noble purpose than helping Stewart earn his promotion, pointing to the sense of betrayal many Vietnam War-era soldiers felt at the hands of a government that failed first failed to give them a good reason to fight and then failed to win.
Themes
