Example research essay topic: Fallen Angels By Walter Dean Myers - 1,549 words

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Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers Dedicated to his older brother, whom the author of Fallen Angels - Walter Dean Myers lost during Vietnam conflict, this books narrates the story of the out of school graduate from Harlem, seventeen year old Richie Perry. Richie's father has left little Richie with his brother and alcoholic mother a long time ago, and having nothing to be looking for at the dead-end streets of Harlem Richie decides to join US Army campaign in Vietnam. The goal is rather simple: earn money for college education, and help his mother and a little brother Kenny to survive. Enlisting himself in the army Richie hopes to avoid purposeless existence. Having something to do, getting food and small pay for exchange: this is what, as Richie thinks, will be the only choice of his. However he never thought about what it is like to experience war.

Fallen Angels takes a dive into the harsh reality of modern war. The realistic depictions of various events in the war and the thoughts of the narrator (Perry) and other characters show an immense change in their approach to the war. Many Americans didnt know what was really going on and history books will only teach that the US was aiming to only stop the spread of communism; but when Richie Perry enlists in the army without much thought other than to receive a steady pay check he is soon introduced to the harsh senselessness in much of the Vietnam Wars violence and destruction. One of the themes in the book is to show the unromantic sides of the war. Just like Richie, many joined the army thinking about it as just an adventure, but Myers shows what the war really is.

The author shows most of the happening as unfair, and the commanders as being far from heroic ideals that fresh soldiers imagined them to be. Overall the army is shown as inefficient and helpless formation of scared and homesick people. This exposure generates a radical change in the characters. Richie never gave much thought to his enlistment in the army. All along the battle fields the soldiers can feel a sense of death, from those dead around them and from witnessing one another being hit in the midst of battle. Experiencing this really changes people.

One example of the effects of death seen early in the novel is when coming back from patrol Perry witnesses the new guy to the squad, Jenkins, being blown away by a land mine just outside of base. This haunts Perry for a while but yet seems to be forgotten by the others. Basically, the book is about the alterations the personality experiences when put into the extreme and dangerous environment. From the very beginning, when Richie first comes to Vietnam he senses the unexplainable evil surrounding him.

To the reader this is the first sign of Richie beginning to change. Richie thought he was prepared for the military life; well it is true, he knew what it is like to have marches, early stand-ups, and physical exercises but he never expected to see so much death and sorrow around him. The first drastic example of Richie's mental collapse happens right after he shoots Vietcong soldier young soldier realizes that he will never be the same and there is no turning back for him. The inner conflict eats him from the inside. Richie feels a great responsibility for taking someones life away. Richie never wanted to kill anyone but after a talk with his new fried Harry Peewee Gates, Richie acquires the first military wisdom: it is either them or you.

The first rule of the war prescribes that one needs to kill in order to survive. Several weeks after the incident, Richie feels that he is losing the grip of the situation. Even the sound of approaching helicopter makes him vomit. Sometime later in the course of the book, Perry gets wounded and ends up in the hospital. Having met many people there, Richie begins to think of many fates and unfairness of the war to these people. Suddenly Perrys spirit begin to resurrect, however, when Richie gets the first orders to return to his service to Chu Lai (the place where their company is stationed) his mind clouds.

Perry even thinks of deserting but eventually rejoins his platoon. Coming back to service Richie manages to reveal to himself the truth of his commander Captain Steward. The captain is more concerned with earning the next promotion rather than with the safety of his subordinate soldiers. After Lieutenant Carrol - Perrys platoon leader is killed in the mission, Richie begins to question himself of the whole purpose of that war. Richie wants to communicate his thoughts and feeling to the civilians, but has no idea which words will explain the war to the people who have never seen it in real life. The only relief for Perry is to talk to his friends who feel the same way of the meaningless presence of theirs in Vietnam.

Also, the book introduces the reader to the racial conflicts within US Army. Right after Richie's return to his services form the hospital he finds that his former commander Sergeant Simpson is replaced with racist Sergeant Dongan. Dongan's strategy is to give blacks the most dangerous missions of the campaign. Such behaviour leads to the appearance of racial conflicts, usually incorporating physical confrontations within the platoon. However, soon Dongan is killed and the squad reunites under the leadership of one of its soldiers Corporal Brunner. The book ends after Corporal Brunner finishes his deadly mission of tracking down Vietcong near the river.

Richie Perry and his fellow Peewee are both wounded as the result of this merely successful campaign, and as they end up in the hospital they begin to realize they are going home soon. Flying on the same plane both of the soldiers try to stand tall in front of the recruits who are just going to Vietnam. Perry has not been conditioned to the brutality of the war yet and so this event does not leave him easily. The author depicts the conditions of the war with great accuracy and realism, something that most of the war stories are usually lacking.

The most heart-felt image expressed by the novel I feel was revealed a little later. A child rigged to bombs blows up in soldiers arms, devastating the minds of those who saw it, although they tried to hide their discomfort. Events like this also shape the behaviour of the soldiers on the battlefield. Overtime soldiers lose their sensitivity to the death around them until theyre concerned with only staying alive with no care for the lives of others. The war becomes a survival struggle in which their main objective is to stay alive and kill the enemy trying to do the same. The war world is totally unlike the world the soldiers all left behind.

All through out the novel various characters speak of getting back to the world. The world in Vietnam during the war is one without moral standards. The death and chaos of it all can drive the men to insanity. A few times in the book people were shocked to what was happening around them causing them to act out without thinking.

Perrys first time killing a man came when a VC came up close, sneaking up behind him in a hut. Perry didnt just shoot him but unleashed an entire clip into the man, truly unleashing a hidden evil inside driven out by the lack of structure in the lives they were now wrapped up in. Perry like others committed acts they would have never dreamed of back in the world. These characters entered the war without the knowledge of what they would be getting into. For this they will never be same people again. They are forever changed to the point that many of them are unsure whether their loved ones will ever recognize them.

Perry for one is unsure how Kenny and his mother will react once they meet again upon his arrival to the world. Walter Dean Myers does a wonderful job projecting his realistic view of the war into this novel and goes into great depth over the tremendous change incurred in the main characters over the course of the war. The cultural value of the book is explained by its sincerity when speaking of the Vietnam Conflict. The truth and realism with which Walter Dean Myers describes Vietnam, the things happening around, and simple people taking part in it, proves that conflict was meaningless, and there was no higher goal (like freeing the people of Vietnam) behind it.

The whole thing happened only because some people in the United States Administration were scared of communism's growth. The conflict provided for tensed relationship between Vietnam and United States for the many years to come. In my point of view, the main idea of the writer is to persuade the American reader that the conflict was purely the fault of the United States. Even the title of the book speaks for itself: Fallen Angels is the story of the collapse of American righteousness and ideals. Reference: Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels.

Gosford: Scholastic Books, 1988

Research essay sample on Fallen Angels By Walter Dean Myers