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Loss Of Innocence In Fallen Angels By Walter Dean Myers

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The novel Fallen Angels, written by Walter Dean Myers, is a story that follows a young African American man named Richie through his journey in the Vietnam war. As a child, Myers had a hard time communicating with others as a result of his speech impediment, and looked to writing as an escape. Similar to the main character, he joined the army as a teenager. This novel was inspired by his own experiences in the army, and served as an outlet for him to express all of the things that he learned about war. The main theme of Fallen Angels is the loss of innocence that war brings. Richie and his friends all enter the war as young and naive teenagers, but quickly lose their innocence as the true horrors of war become apparent. One fact that I learned from the book is that a war is one of the most inhumane and devastating event that could ever take place. Previously, my knowledge on wars was limited to descriptions such as bad and really bad. However now, I understand how gruesome and grim war really is from the eyes of Richie. His vivid and terrifying descriptions helped me see that war shouldn’t be viewed with nonchalance, because some of the most unimaginable things have happened there. Instead, we should learn the truth, no matter how hard it may be. This …show more content…

I never would have thought that racism happens on the same side, but this book once again opened my eyes. Richie’s experiences with prejudice within his own unit showed me that even when people are in a war and fighting for the same cause, there will always be individuals who remain ignorant. Learning this fact has changed my historical perspective by giving me a greater appreciation for any minority or colored people who have fought in any war. Those people have earned my utmost respect because they not only had to battle with the enemy, but also had to battle their own

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In the novel Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, the main character is Richard Perry. In the beginning of this book, Richard was a generous and eager to start as a soldier in the Vietnam War. He soon becomes responsible and understanding of what it is like to be a black soldier in the war and how hard it can be to the other soldiers. Near the end, Richard becomes powerful and alerted near the end of the book. This character clearly relates to the theme of the book, which is age and race can impact somebody’s life a lot.

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His 24-month long mission gave him the opportunity to use his journalism and educational experiences to cover the important roles that African American soldiers were playing in the Vietnam War. The military’s goal in this assignment was to show the American people and potential African American soldiers that African American soldiers were now treated equally. There was a stigma regarding the maltreatment of African Americans in the military, and with the passing of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, the image of the African American soldier began to quickly change. The new breed of African American soldiers no longer tolerated bigotry and hatred. African American soldiers began uniting to combat the injustices in America as well as within the military overseas.

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In the beginning of the novel, Perry was an uncertain teen who didn’t know where his place in life was “The real question was what I was doing, what any of us were doing, in Nam” (69). By the middle of the book, Perry started to become doubtful of himself and started to say Jenkins and Carroll died because of him “In a way i felt real bad just for being alive to write it” (110). And by the last few chapters he really starts to lose his way and lose his judgement from right and wrong “Maybe when we all got back to the world and everybody thought we were heroes for winning it, then it would seem right from there” (229). During my reading of Fallen Angels, I began to notice the theme, and I think the theme is that War is devastating to people because it can totally mess you up psychologically and physically.

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