A Study Guide for Walter Dean Myers's "Sunrise over Fallujah"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Walter Dean Myers's "Sunrise over Fallujah," 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: 9781535834360

Book preview

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Sunrise over Fallujah

Walter Dean Myers

2008

Introduction

Acclaimed young-adult author Walter Dean Myers's Sunrise over Fallujah introduces readers to Robin Perry, an eighteen-year-old African American soldier from Harlem. The story, told from Robin's point of view, follows the young man and his squad as they navigate the first months of the Iraq War in 2003, from February to June. A heartfelt war novel that also constitutes a coming-of-age tale, Sunrise over Fallujah touches on the trauma, violence, and confusion of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the bonds between Robin and his fellow soldiers, and the challenges of trying to effect positive change in the midst of chaos.

First published in 2008, Sunrise over Fallujah serves as a companion to Myers's 1988 novel Fallen Angels, which features Robin's uncle, Richie, and his experiences as a seventeen-year-old soldier in the Vietnam War. Both books are personal for the author, a veteran whose brother died in the Vietnam War and whose son and grandson served in the Iraq War.

Author Biography

Myers was born Walter Milton Myers on August 12, 1937, in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and later changed his name to honor his adoptive parents. Myers's biological mother, Mary Myers, died while giving birth to his younger sister. Afterward, his biological father, George Ambrose Myers, sent him to live with Herbert and Florence Dean in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Herbert worked as a shipping clerk, and Florence, George's first wife, was a factory worker and English teacher.

As a boy, Walter struggled in school and suffered from a speech impediment. A teacher told him he might communicate better by writing, and Myers was soon filling his notebooks with poetry and short stories. But he dropped out of high school when he learned that his family could not afford to send him to college. Myers joined the army when he turned seventeen, serving from 1954 to 1957. The experience would serve as the inspiration for the 1988 novel Fallen Angels and its 2008 follow-up, Sunrise over Fallujah.

Myers held a variety of odd jobs after he left the army, mostly as a factory or clerical worker. He married and fathered two children, Karen and Michael Dean, and he continued to write through it all, publishing articles in the National Enquirer and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Myers's first story, the picture book Where Does the Day Go? (1969), won a Council on Interracial Books for Children contest. Additional picture books followed, but in 1975 Myers released his first young-adult novel, Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff. Most of his work since then has been categorized as young-adult fiction, coming-of-age tales that feature African American teens as they navigate social issues from drug use and racism to gang violence and