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
Lieutenant Doyle of Charlie Company tells Perry that they’re going on sector patrol to establish their presence in the jungle, not to get involved in a firefight or anything. The first platoon will lead, followed by the third and fourth (Perry’s) in another sector. Doyle assigns Perry to feed the machine gun for Scotty, an ashy white boy with darting, determined eyes. Scotty hefts his weapon and Perry grabs two bandoliers and a box of ammunition, which weigh a lot. While they wait for the choppers, the Charlie Company guys talk about their impending stand down. They can’t wait to get a break.
Charlie Company guys were responsible for the recent episode of disobedience, in part because they believed the pleasant but incorrect gossip about impending peace. The slow realization that this gossip represented false hope contributes to the soldiers’ sense of betrayal and traumatization almost as much as the dangerous conditions their commanders ask them to face on patrol.
Themes
The choppers finally arrive. As they approach the landing zone, Perry can see muzzle blasts twinkling in the jungle below. Scotty assures him that if he can see the muzzle blast, the bullet missed. They hit the landing zone, take off through the tall sharp grass, and dig in at their assigned spot, a few dozen feet away from Doyle and the radio guy. Perry asks if they’ll stay there for the rest of the patrol, and Scotty says that Doyle doesn’t do more than the bare minimum to fulfil orders. He’s not invested in the war; he even dodged the draft and when the FBI caught up with him, he worked his connections to get into Officers Candidate School. Like Perry, Scotty volunteered because he had no other plans.
Scotty’s gallows humor points to the widespread nature of violence in war. Because it’s inescapable, the soldiers try to preserve their sanity by joking about it. Doyle’s lackluster attitude towards his duty arises from his lack of investment in the war; he’s one of the few soldiers whom the book explicitly describes as having been drafted (instead of volunteering). Without a positive reason for fighting, he becomes a risk to the men with whom he serves.
Themes
After half an hour of waiting, just as Doyle tells the squad to start packing up, the shooting starts. They’ve spotted someone 450 meters away in the jungle. As he opens the ammo box and Scotty starts firing, Perry realizes he isn’t scared. After what seems like a long time, Doyle calls a ceasefire; he’s radioing for Willy Peter (white phosphorous). That’s Doyle, Scotty says; they were probably shooting at nothing, but Doyle will still call in the artillery just in case. The platoon fires intermittently until the artillery shells land, sending streamers of fire and a terrible stench into the air. Just thinking of being hit by Willy Peter terrifies Perry. Then, the artillery barrage ends abruptly; in his foxhole, Doyle screams “cease fire!” into the radio. Scotty slumps as he realizes what happened: they just “shot the shit out of the first platoon.”
Doyle’s fear makes his squad trigger happy; they open fire without scouting ahead properly. Unable to keep going through his fear, Doyle behaves unheroically and betrays his fellow soldiers in the worst way possible. This so-called “friendly fire” incident becomes a metaphor for all the ways in which the United States military betrayed its soldiers throughout the course of the Vietnam War. In casually and un-strategically sending young men off to die while downplaying or ignoring important intelligence about enemy movements, the faceless military machine traumatized and damaged even the soldiers lucky enough to survive.
Themes
Perry and the rest of the fourth platoon walk slowly across the fields towards the first platoon’s position. Medics swarm between the trees, triaging soldiers. They load the ones they think they can save into the first medevac helicopters but tag those whose wounds seem fatal, leaving them to die alone. No one talks. Some soldiers cry. Scotty lights a cigarette for a sergeant whose blood soaks his own matches. Finally, they climb into a chopper to head back to base. Scotty tells Perry it was nice to meet him.
Wrongly assessed as a threat, then dehumanized and turned into an artillery target, the fate of the first platoon illustrates what awaits the Americans’ adversaries in this war, while clearly illustrating how easy it is to dehumanize the supposed enemy. Worse, there’s nothing for Perry, Scotty, or the rest to do other than try to offer small comforts to the dying.
Themes
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Lieutenant Carroll meets Perry when he returns to camp. He shakes his head over the tragedy. In the hooch, Perry tells Peewee and Monaco what happened. Monaco expresses horror that Perry “hit our guys,” and Perry protests that he didn’t—the platoon leader called in artillery. Monaco goes silently to his bunk and lays down with his face to the wall. Peewee asks how bad the first platoon got messed up.
Perry entered the war with a sense of right and wrong, with a feeling of purpose. The friendly fire incident bluntly reminds him that the purpose of war is killing. It’s unthinkable—and traumatizing—for Perry’s squad to realize that the American forces can’t always distinguish between their own and enemy soldiers. It’s awful to consider that they could kill some of their own on accident—but they must also reckon with the fact that their own side could kill them.
Themes
When Perry goes to mail a birthday gift to Kenny, he finds Lieutenant Carroll drinking whiskey in the officers’ hooch. Carroll offers Perry a swig. At night, images of Charlie Company’s first platoon crowd in Perry’s mind, keeping him awake. He asks Brew where to find the Lord’s Prayer in the Bible. Brew shows him and tells Perry to borrow his Bible any time.
It’s the friendly fire incident—the realization that he’s vulnerable not just to his enemies but also his own side—that finally drives Perry to prayer. He draws closer to his squad as he realizes they’re his only hope for any kind of safety, and he turns to God when it becomes clear that the humans running the war are fallible.
Themes
