Loss of Innocence in Fallen Angels Essay

While honor and self-realization may be ideological terms often associated with a war cause, brutality and self-scarification are perhaps more realistic descriptors. The brutal and ferocious atmosphere of war often forces its young soldier constituencies to sacrifice any childish views of life, and mature. Walter Dean Myers novel, Fallen Angels, details the tragic loss of innocence of group of young soldiers who, surrounded by the unspeakable horrors of the Vietnam War, are forced to prematurely journey into manhood. Though initially and wholly innocent, the tense atmosphere of war forces Richie Perry and his fellow soldiers to leave behind former romantic views of war and realize its moral ambiguity. A truly unfortunate byproduct of war, Richie Perrys untimely maturation process and subsequent loss of innocence exemplifies the sacrifice that all young soldiers in combat must make. While the Vietnam War atmosphere pressures Richie Perry and his fellow soldiers to grow up, they begin their premature journey into manhood with innocent perspectives and hopeful life goals.

Prior to their loss of innocence, Richie Perry and his fellow soldiers are relatively normal teenage boys who look to their respective futures with a certain promise. Richie Perry, like his fellow future comrades, arrives in Vietnam as a mere seventeen year old teenage enlistee and is stereotypically (as any normal teenager) ensure about what exactly his future may hold. All the boysRichie, Peewee, Johnson, and Jenkins hold onto normal teenage goals; Peewee, for example, has three slightly childish life goals, And thats the first time I ever drank from a bottle with a cork in it, he said. Now all I got to do is to make love with a foreign woman and smoke a cigar (54). As hopeful virgins, Peewee and the rest of his platoon, like most teenage boys, exemplify their innate immaturity by constantly fantasizing about sex. In addition to having innocently boyish personalities, Richie, Peewee, and the rest of the boys hold false illusions about the concept of war. Based upon fictional movie plotlines and various rumors, the boys naively believe that engaging in combat is heroic and that the Vietnam conflict is on the verge of ending. While initially Richie Perry and his fellow enlistees innocently hold onto juvenile goals and glorified depictions of war, unforeseen tense circumstances of combat force the boys to grow up quickly.

Similar to scores of other young soldiers entering Vietnam at the time, Richie Perry joins the army with highly idealistic and romantic illusions of war. Richie expects the army to be organized and structured, and active combats to be glorious. Unfortunately, as they later realize, the romantic expectations of war of Richie and his fellow enlistees are not met in Vietnam: We spent another day lying around. It seemed to be what the war was about. Hours of boredom, seconds of terror (132). While missions certainly beget terror, the missions are extremely short and sporadic. Instead of fighting honorably and helping Vietnamese civilians in need, Perry and his fellow soldiers find themselves waiting for the next sneak attack, gripped with anxiety. Plagued with this anxiousness about the next attack, the soldiers often wait weeks in complete paranoia. Originally confident and expectant that glorious combats would fill them up with a sense of self worth, Perry and the young soldiers actually feel let down, disgruntled and paranoid. In addition, further negating their romantic views of war, Richie, Peewee, and the others find the army and active combat to be disorganized, completely inefficient and completely feeble; disillusioned by the concept of war, the young soldiers begin realize that perhaps war was not as glorious as they hoped it to be. Without a clear cause for engaging in violent warfare, the young soldiers lose former innocence and their once romantic ideals of are quickly abandoned. The violent and confusing environment of Vietnam cause the young soldiers to desert former childish views of life and prematurely delve into the confusion of manhood. Once they realize the unromantic aspects of war, Richie Perry and his fellow enlistees also begin to realize the moral ambiguity of war.

While risking their lives in violent combat without a clear cause worth fighting for, Richie Perry and his fellow young soldiers struggle with the moral issues of war. Based upon rumors heard back in America, Richie truly believes that the army helps Vietnamese civilians under oppression, and subsequently expected to be graciously greeted by those civilians under oppression. To Richies dismay, however, instead of graciously greeting the soldiers, the Vietnamese were cold and very distrusting of American interference in their government. Richie first begins to realize the twisted moral issues of war when he and his troops are sent on a conniving mission to convince civilians that Communism is bad; We were supposed to smile a lot and treat people with dignity. They were supposed to think we were the good guys. That bothered me a little. I didnt like having to convince anybody that I was the good guy. We, the Americans, were the good guys (112). Richie becomes unsettled with the idea his mission was to console Vietnamese villagers whose villages the American army often ended up destroying under false pretenses of Communism. Amidst this political confliction, the young soldiers of the Vietnam War also struggle with the concept of what is right and wrong: if communism was bad, was it okay to destroy simply civilian villages? Surrounded by the horrors of death and whilst mindlessly fighting for abstract terms such as communism, the soldiers grow increasing doubtful about the morality of war. The young soldiers of Vietnam finally lose all sense of innocence when they must force themselves to continue fighting for self preservation. The tense war atmosphere of Vietnam plagues the young soldiers with worry and forces them to prematurely grow up. Afflicted with mass confusion and an anxious atmosphere, the young soldiers in Vietnam lose innocence. While originally content with romantic ideals of war, the harsh reality of the Vietnam War make Richie Perry and his fellow comrades reevaluate goals, and unable to distinguish right from wrong.