There are a lot of books that are written about war. Books such as "Band of Brothers", "An Army at Dawn", "The Longest Day" portrays a realistic look on what the wars were like. From descriptions of burning rubble on the story's setting to the realistic depictions of violence and gore in war, war books were able to show what it was like living on the battlefield. The book "Fallen Angels" are one of these books. Published in 1988, this book was banned in school libraries across the United States due to its foul language, gruesome descriptions of combat, and racism. A realistic novel about the Vietnam war, this book received acclaim and criticism from different people. Continue to read this report to learn more about this book by an award winning …show more content…
Richie Perry, a recent high school graduate, feels lost and unsure what to do with his life. He enlists in the military thinking that it will keep him out of trouble. Richie and a group of soldiers are immediately deployed to the jungles of Vietnam. He believed that the war will be over very soon and didn't plan to see much action. However, they are dropped down in the middle of a war zone and discovers that the war is nowhere near being finished. Richie then discovers the true face of war: suicide ambushes, enemies hiding and lurking in spider holes and murky swamps, explosive landmines, burned out villages full of dead old people, women and children, the accidental friendly fire at soldiers in your own platoon, children who are strapped with bombs and sent among the American soldiers, and seeing his comrades die in front of him What began as an thrilling adventure for Richie has turned into a nightmare. Fear and death are tangible in Vietnam and soon Richie begins to question why he is fighting. After surviving two encounters with death, Richie is honorably discharged from the service. Disillusioned about the glory of war, Richie returns home with a renewed desire to live and an appreciation for the family he left
With unforgiving terrain and the seemingly never ending destruction, the environment of war can be the biggest challenge faced. The constant presence of death and the savage actions of men, the jungle and villages of Vietnam that was home to many families can become a nightmare within days. The book says, “I walked away. People were not supposed to be made like that. People were not supposed to be twisted bone and tubes that popped out at crazy kid’s-toys angles.
In the novel Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, the main character is Richie Perry. At seventeen he graduated high school in Harlem, and he wanted to go to college, but his mother couldn’t afford to send him to college since she was an alcoholic. So he joined the army to escape his unfortunate future, but joining the army meant he had to leave his little brother Kenny, who saw him as a father figure since their father left when they were younger. Perry was sent to Vietnam and through his journey, he made lifelong bonds with many different people such as PeeWee, Monaco, and etc. Also in his journey, he suffers from mental and physical wounds.
In A Viet Cong Memoir, we receive excellent first hands accounts of events that unfolded in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from the author of this autobiography: Truong Nhu Tang. Truong was Vietnamese at heart, growing up in Saigon, but he studied in Paris for a time where he met and learned from the future leader Ho Chi Minh. Truong was able to learn from Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary ideas and gain a great political perspective of the conflicts arising in Vietnam during the war. His autobiography shows the readers the perspective of the average Vietnamese citizen (especially those involved with the NLF) and the attitudes towards war with the United States. In the book, Truong exclaims that although many people may say the Americans never lost on the battlefield in Vietnam — it is irrelevant.
He has a conflict between his duty to his country and the preservation of himself and his platoon. Simpson has a chance to leave Vietnam, but he is pressured into extending his stay for a month. He wants to make sure he lives but he also gains a bond of brotherhood with his men so he does not want to leave them behind. Simpson struggles with the conflict created by his loyalty to, and understanding of, his men and his Sergeant's persistent ambition that threatens their safety. Lieutenant Carroll is the leader of Richie’s platoon.
The different tactics used to cope are hard on these soldiers during war. Our main character Richard “Richie” Perry has a religious way of coping with the horrors he sees or faces, “Sunday. The chaplain came around and asked if we wanted to come to the services. We said we would all be at the services.
Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.
Despite what people think books and poems about war don’t have a lot in common. Yes, they are about war, but in different perspectives. I believe that the book All Quiet on The Western Front Is very different from the two poems Ballad of the Three specters and Glory of Women. In the book we follow a soldier named Paul Baumer.
“ I knew mama loved me, but I also knew when I got back, she would expect me to be the same person, but it could never happen. She hadn’t been to Nam. She hadn't given the poncho to anybody to wrap a body in, or stepped over a dying kid” Richie is aware of the changes he has gone through while serving in the war. He understands that people will expect him to be the same guy he was when he left, but he accepts that he will have to adjust his way of life because of the things he faced and seen in
Men went through so many tasks during the Vietnam War physically and mentally. The beginning chapters focus on training for war and being prepared for the worst. For example, when there is a sergeant in a room with the marines. The sergeant walks to the chalk board and writes “AMBUSHES ARE MURDER AND MURDER IS FUN” (36-37). The
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.
He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.
During the course of this class I have had the opportunity to read a very daunting list of books in regards to The Great War. While I did enjoy the extra insight given through each of these books, two come to mind when I think of as a way to introduce students to the time period; All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque; and Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway. While these fictional books about a defining point in human history are famous in their own right, between the two, I believe that Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front does exceedingly well to convey the thoughts, emotions, and physical hardships which was The Great War. “Kantorek would say that we stood on the threshold of life.
In November of 1955, the United States entered arguably one of the most horrific and violent wars in history. The Vietnam War is documented as having claimed about 58,000 American lives and more than 3 million Vietnamese lives. Soldiers and innocent civilians alike were brutally slain and tortured. The atrocities of such a war are near incomprehensible to those who didn’t experience it firsthand. For this reason, Tim O’Brien, Vietnam War veteran, tries to bring to light the true horrors of war in his fiction novel The Things They Carried.
The Vietnam War leaves a legacy of moral confusion with each and every soldier who serves. Soldiers are fighting for a cause they do not necessarily believe in, killing people who do not necessarily deserve it, and watching their brothers die beside them. Tim O’Briens’ book, The Things They Carried, illustrates the soldiers struggle to define morality throughout the confusion of the war. On the Rainy River, Tim O’Brien faces what he feels is his moral obligation to answer his country’s call and fight in Vietnam, and a personal moral issue with the reason for the war.
Oliver Stone’s Platoon may romanticize aspects of the war through its characters like Chris and exaggerate traits of certain characters, but overall the film displays a great deal of historical authenticity in a fictional story set in the Vietnam war that encouraged public interest into the