A Study Guide for Walter Dean Myers's "The Glory Field"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Walter Dean Myers's "The Glory Field," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jun 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535836838

Book preview

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The Glory Field

Walter Dean Myers

1994

Introduction

The sweeping saga The Glory Field, published in 1994, is one of many popular young adult novels written by the prolific Walter Dean Myers. Like a number of Myers's books, The Glory Field focuses on the African American experience and explores the development of youth. The protagonists in each segment of the novel are young people who face significant challenges.

In The Glory Field, Myers tells the story of multiple generations of the African American Lewis family in five separate but interconnected stories. Muhammad Bilal is the dynasty's founder, who was brought to the United States as a young slave from Africa. Through subsequent segments, Muhammad's descendants emerge from slavery to own a piece of land they once worked in servitude in South Carolina. Named Glory Field, it serves as a representation of their sacrifice and standing in the local community. Later, the land is a link to the past as the Lewises live in such far-flung locales as Chicago and New York City and deal with twentieth-century problems.

Throughout the novel, Myers emphasizes such themes as the importance of family and the value of kinship. While exploring ideas of the tension between freedom and captivity, he also shows the effects of racism and racist behavior on members of the Lewis clan in such important historical moments as the post-Civil War era and the civil rights movement. Given the period covered in the novel, there are descriptions of violence against members of the Lewis clan, including whippings and threats of physical harm. Myers also uses authentic language, including derogatory terms for African Americans. In the final segment of The Glory Field, Shep Lewis struggles crack cocaine addiction (discussed, but not depicted, in the text).

Critics generally responded positively to the depth and breadth of The Glory Field. Writing about the novel in the Christian Science Monitor, Karen Williams notes, This riveting work brings alive the times each character represents. Although Myers depicts many triumphs of this African-American family, he also vividly shows the high cost of every victory.

Author Biography

Born Walter Milton Myers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on August 12, 1937, the author is the son of George and Mary Myers. When he was two, his mother died giving birth to his younger sister, Imogene. Because his father was impoverished and could not care for all of his children, Myers was raised in Harlem by Herbert and Florence Dean. The working-class Deans were friends of Myers's mother and they served as his lifelong foster parents. Myers took their last name and made it his middle name in honor of their loving care.

As a child, Myers had a speech impediment that hindered his spoken communication even though he was a good student. A teacher encouraged him to write down his thoughts in poems and short stories, and he won the first of what would be many awards for his writing. Myers also became an avid reader and spent many hours at the public library. Bitter because of the limited opportunities due to his race and socioeconomic status, he left Stuyvesant High School at sixteen and joined the U.S. Army the following year. Myers remained in the service until 1957. He held various jobs, including postal clerk and messenger, and he wrote at night after work. Myers later studied at the State College of the City of New York and earned his BA from Empire State College.

After a stint working as an employment supervisor for the New York State Department of Labor in the late 1960s, Myers joined the publishing industry. He was frustrated by the lack of books by African American authors that accurately reflected the black experience. His picture book Where Does the Day Go? (1969), won a contest sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children in 1968. Myers then found employment as a senior trade-book editor at Bobbs-Merrill Company while continuing to write primarily picture books.

After learning the business side of publishing