Angel Down an Analysis

The 2026 Pulitzer Prize---aptly awarded this year---we have the main character Bagger, who is a con man, and swindler. Has some sentimentality, and loves Arno, a boy who's young and fighting in the trenches of World War I.

Bagger is a very interesting character. To say the least, I can see he clearly has BPD. The story is one long, compound sentence, and you see in the beginning General Reis gave an order, very explicitly---and this is the reason I perked up to the book---to save the man's life. But, Bagger, in turn, turns it into a mercy killing---which wasn't protocol in World War I---and he goes on convincingly through the rest of the book with this in view, deprecating Reis' character the whole time. When that wasn't the order to begin with, it was Bagger's fabrication. And so convincingly does Bagger tell you this, too. But, we have the order on Page 31 paragraph 4.

Interestingly, Bagger likes to read Tarzan to Arno, and built up a strong friendship, even a genuine affection. Which means he's not NPD or ASPD. He has genuine love for Arno. And when going out, he actually risks his life in Arno's favor, to save the Angel who's caught in the barb wire. This is his first selfless deed, and I see a change in Bagger, having done what is perhaps his first noble thing, even giving credit to his dad as an influence of it. But, he still remembers the order wrong, showing the memory lapse, and how Bagger has skewed his memory so much of Reis, knocking him off the pedestal, in order to lie about him. Which is true for people with Borderline Personality Disorder, is a bad recognisance of events, usually also a misalignment with reality and a distrust for authority figures, as Bagger truly believed he would win a Medal of Honor for such a disgraceful mission. Bagger changed the order to a mercy killing, and when he saw the angel had the likeness of his love affaire, he immediately wanted to save her, and then also took to degrading Reis, and deprecating his desire for winning a Medal of Honor, which coincidentally, is not a medal that a General usually wins. Leading to the more humiliating fact that Bagger is completely wrong about Reis' intents. He just doesn't like Bagger because he recognizes his ignoble character.

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