War, Trauma, and Dehumanization
When Richie Perry arrives in Vietnam as a newly minted infantry soldier, he believes that he and the rest of the American soldiers there serve some higher purpose: ensuring freedom for the Vietnamese people, defeating communism, or defending the American way of life. But when he gets to the “Deep Boonies,” close to the war’s front lines, he learns quickly—and to his dismay—that nothing about war is clear or morally unambiguous. As Northern Vietnamese forces…
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Perseverance and Heroism
When Richie Perry joins the United States Army to fight in Vietnam, he already knows what suffering tastes like. Perry’s father abandoned the family when Perry was a young boy, while his mother struggles with alcoholism. Racism and gang activity run rampant in New York City, where he grew up. Further, Perry can’t afford to go to college and pursue his dream of becoming a writer. Then, when he arrives in Vietnam, he learns to…
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Race, Identity, and Belonging
Not all of the soldiers of Richie Perry’s U.S. Army battalion find easy acceptance among their peers, as they represent a full cross-section of American identities. Perry, Johnson, Peewee, Sergeant Simpson, and Brewster are Black; Monaco is Italian-American; and Lobel is Jewish. Some of Lieutenant Gearhart’s comments are indirect, subtle, and unintentionally racist or bigoted, while Walowick, Brunner, and Sergeant Dongan are openly racist. This range of attitudes…
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Reality and Fiction
In Vietnam, one of the members of Richie Perry’s squad, Lobel, comes from Hollywood, where his uncle is a movie producer. Unsurprisingly, Lobel is obsessed with movies, and early on in their friendship, he explains to Perry the coping mechanism he uses to deal with the dehumanizing trauma of the war. Lobel imagines that he’s the main character in a movie. The main character in a movie never dies, and his “victims” are…
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Faith and Hope
When Jenkins steps on a landmine and dies on his first assignment in Vietnam, platoon leader Lieutenant Carroll gathers the rest of his stunned squad and leads them in a prayer for his soul and the souls of all “angel warriors.” Soon afterwards, he confesses that his experiences in Vietnam have given him too many doubts about his faith to follow his one-time dream of going to seminary. Yet, despite his doubts, he still finds…
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