Essay Sample: Jenkins in Fallen Angels

Fear. Fear so strong that bodies seem to forget how to function. Fear so strong that soldiers become statues in open battlefields. The Vietnam War was a war of death and great bloodshed. 2.2 million American boys were drafted and sent to fight against their own wishes; leaving their families behind to fight for the greater good. These young men left home not knowing if they were going to make it back, terrified and feeling impotent. In Fallen Angles, Walter Dean Myers illustrates the struggle young men go through as they are drafted to fight in war through the character of Jenkins.

Myers first introduces Jenkins as the characters, Perry and Peewee, are traveling to meet their new squad. Perry describes Jenkins by declaring, “He looked like one of those characters from an Archie Andrews comic, but he was so scared it wasn’t funny” (Myers 20). Jenkins is a scrawny, little, innocent, white boy, not much older than twenty, like over half the men in the war. Peewee goes on to make use of Jenkins’ innocence through great finesse, explaining how he must kill the same number of Congs as his weight before he can go home, making the boy even more scared and terrified. Killing one man is hard enough on the mental health of a person but killing at least 160-180 men at such a youthful age; that would destroy a soldier’s sanity. After the end of the Vietnam War, PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, became more prominent and common in returned veterans. Soldiers were coming home and reexperience the traumatic events they faced in the war. Doctor Jeffrey A. Lieberman in the article, Solving the “Mystery of Military Mental Health: A Call to Action, proclaims,” “Despite treatment with the available psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies, PTSD never fully remits in more than half of patients” (Lieberman para 6). With this new psychiatric disorder, research on treatment began to help the men get back their civilian lives. However, the treatment was not successful in more than 50% of the men, leaving them with daily struggles and triggers. In the article, “Veterans Deserve Innovative and Effective PTSD Treatments,” author Seth Lederman proclaims, “As many as eleven million Americans suffer with PTSD, and up to 80 percent of those afflicted seek no help…. Its victims are consumed; their families are ravaged. Too often, they die young” (Lederman para 3). Young men came home after the war and not only effected their own lives but the lives of their family members. Life never actually got back to normal for these families of soldiers. Despite fighting in the war and facing frightening struggles there, these young men still face the horrors of the war safely at home. ss

The soldiers not only face physical battles, but they also face the internal battles what of one’s mind. In a section of the book, The Journal of Law and Religion, William H. Becker declares, “…the enemies he truly needed to confront were not Vietnamese but America, not only external but also internal. In the midst of warfare, Ehrhart began what was to become a long process of spiritual wrestling: wrestling with America and her self-betrayal, with all those agents of socialization that had led him to believe in America’s white hats, and with all the powerful forces that resist questioning that socialization-including those within himself” (Becker 81). As soldiers begun to hear of those rioting back in America and began facing those horrible things of war, they started to question what the purpose of this war was. Pat Tillman, an ex-pro football star and decorated military solider, exclaims in the article, “Betrayal of An All American,” “… the war was ‘b******t’” (Brown 3). Even the most loyal among loyal like Pat Tillman were questioning the reason of fighting in wars…Soldiers were wondering why their beloved country had sent them on a mission that many deemed worthless. Perry speaks how back home, boys are burning their drafting letters to avoid going off to fight and numerous violent riots are breaking out, not supporting the war. In a New York Times article, “Veterans Struggle with Issues That Are Often Invisible to Others,” Bonnie Carroll exclaims, “’ Some veterans are wondering if the wars were worth it.’” (Steinhauer para. 7) Soldiers are beginning to doubt their beloved country, starting to question if what they were doing is genuinely good. Countless feel that they were betrayed by the one they are fighting for, their country.

Jenkins’ character of being this scared kid is portrayed through his actions and majority of his dialogue. Perry notes, “Jenkins was crying” (Myers 24), and “He looked up at me with a forced smile” (Myers 31). Everything Jenkins does seems to be out of fear and negativity. He cannot put up a real smile like most soldiers out there. The American media tends to characterize the soldiers of the army as these masculine macho men, what they do not show is the fear embed into the eyes and the smoke of death surrounding them like a thick blanket. Like all young men in the war, these soldiers are concerned with living and making their families proud. Jenkins states, “’My father’s a colonel… He’s got this thing, he calls it his game plan. First I volunteer for infantry and take advanced individuals training in infantry. I serve my time over here, then I go to Offices Candidate School.’” (Myers 29). Multiple soldiers do not want to fight but feel the great onus that they must make their country and family proud of them, creating this very heavy pressure on their shoulders. In the article, “The Dangers of Putting Too Much Pressure on Kids” by Amy Morin, it exclaims, “Kids who feel like they’re under constant pressure can experience constant anxiety… The constant stress to perform interferes with children’s identity formation and causes them to feel like they’re not good enough—or even that they will never be good enough” (Morin para 12-13). Just like how Jenkins believes that he will never make it out of the war and the pressure he feels from his father, many soldiers feel the same thing. That constant pressure felt by the soldiers causes their confidence and moral to go down. They start to not perform well on battle due to them not believing in themselves, costing them their lives. Sadly, many of the men drafted did not it home to their families. Jenkins confidently stated, “’ I’m going to die over here’” (Myers 30). Not even a couple of days later, Jenkins was unable to escape the imprecations of war and was killed by accidently stepping on a land mine.

Even though numerous soldiers are lost to in battle, their friends carry their memories with them as they continue to fight. As the book goes on Perry is constantly thinking of Jenkins. Perry tells another soldier, “’ Still thinking about Jenkins, I guess’” (Myers 71). Nevertheless, Jenkins had enough impact on Perry that he still carries the memories of him, such as Lieutenant Carroll who carries the names of his lost soldiers with him everywhere in memory. Soldiers die every day, but their memories live on with the men they fight with their brothers of war.

Jenkins may seem like a very pedestrian type of character in the book, but he is the one that represents most of the draftees, exhibiting that these manliest men of men are just as terrified and scared as any other human being when it comes to war. He represents those men who went and fought for the country even though they were afraid of the outcome. His fear makes him human and therefore relatable.