Fallen Angels Character Analysis

War: The Defiler of Purity John Milton, an English poet, once said, “Innocence, once lost, can never be regained; Darkness, once gazed upon, can never be lost.” This is true of many situations, but especially so in war. The sight of premature death, grotesque injuries, and unnecessary sacrifice is impossible to forget. This is illustrated clearly in Walter Dean Myer’s graphic novel, Fallen Angels, through the protagonist Richard Perry’s development from a clueless, unprepared soldier to a scarred, weather-beaten veteran, through Richie’s experiences of his comrade’s death, the struggle of right verses wrong, and the terrifying futility of war. Initially, Perry arrives in Vietnam feeling prepared for what is to come. This approach is first challenged through Richie’s reaction to his comrade’s death throughout the novel. Within his first week in Vietnam, Jenkins, one of the members of Perry’s platoon, suffers a tragic death. Richie

This is the immoral act of killing other innocent soldiers, even if it is to protect yourself and those you love. Therefore, sending soldiers to kill the ‘enemy’ in the hopes of achieving a short lived peace is a faulty idea that Perry and his fellow soldiers, as well as anyone involved with the war, struggles to believe. Furthermore, this leads to the frightening futility of war; which is the last understanding that causes Richie to leave his childhood behind. After realizing he doesn’t know why he’s in the war, Perry’s mindset has grown from a faint idea of justice to a horrific certainty of death, leaving him a changed man. A transformed Perry explains his mindset saying:

“I thought about what Peewee had said. That I had better think about killing the Cong’s before they killed me. That had better be my reason, he had said…Maybe he was right. But it meant being some other person than I was when I got to ‘Nam. Maybe that was what I had to be. Someone else”