In Walter Dean Myers' book Fallen Angels, the main character Richie struggles with the reality of war, which contradicts the war he believed he was entering. The book shows racial conflicts between soldiers. The loss of innocence of young soldiers. How soldiers cope with the horrors of war. All of these factors change Richie's perspective on the Vietnam War in which he participated. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Richie, a young black soldier from Harlem, has faced racism his entire life. Although this made his life difficult, it never put him in the line of fire on a daily basis. “Richie learns that former squad leader Sargent Sampson has been sent home. His replacement is the racist Sergeant Donagan, who always places black soldiers in the most dangerous positions. Early in their tour of duty, there are racial and ethnic tensions between team members, which frequently result in physical confrontations...‚(Spark Notes). Racial issues made an already miserable war even more difficult for Richie, being the most venerable to attack based on the color of his skin even though they were in the same unit, fighting for the same side shows the different issues of the Vietnam War. in Vietnam, there were not only adult men, but rather adolescents who had not known the world. “The title of the novel Fallen Angels immediately emphasizes the theme of youth and innocence” (Spark Notes). When Richie went into Vietnam, he was young in many ways, innocent in many ways. Richie was nineteen, fresh out of high school, had never left Harlem, smoked a cigar, drank wine, and, most importantly to Rich, had never had sex with a woman. female. These young men were expected to go out and fight an enemy that many of them did not know, or did not know the exact reason for fighting. In chapter four, Lieutenant Carroll states, “All soldiers are Angel Warriors.” Dan Myers places this theme of innocence above all others, race, class or religion. War soon transforms the naive boys into hardened young men.‚The unspeakable horrors that surround the boys force them to contemplate a world that does not conform to their childish and simplistic notions. Where they want to see only a separation between good and evil, they instead find moral ambiguity. Where they want to see order and meaning, they find only chaos and senselessness. Where they want to find heroism, they find only the selfish instinct of self-preservation. These realizations destroy the boys' innocence, propelling them prematurely into manhood (Spark Notes). Growing up is something that every young man must go through, even if the violent and traumatic ways it happens in wartime is not a positive way. The reality of war affects soldiers in many ways, more negative than positive. Like all the other Fallen Angels soldiers, Richie joins the army with illusions about what war is. Like many American citizens, he learned about war from films and stories that depict battle as heroic and glorious, the military as efficient and organized, and war as an efficient effort that depends on skill. What the soldiers actually discovered in Vietnam bore almost no resemblance to such a romanticized version of the war. The army is very ineffective. Most officers are far from heroic, only caring about their