A Study Guide for Walter Dean Myers's "Fallen Angels"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Walter Dean Myers's "Fallen Angels," 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: 9781535823074

Book preview

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Fallen Angels

Walter Dean Myers

1988

Introduction

Fallen Angels is a novel for young adults by Walter Dean Myers, first published in 1988. The novel is set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It follows the story of Richie Perry, a seventeen-year-old African American from Harlem, New York, who spends four months fighting in Vietnam from the fall of 1967 to the beginning of 1968. The story is presented realistically, and the author's approach is an objective one. Although he touches on many of the controversial aspects of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, he does not take sides regarding whether the war was justified or not. His goal is to present it from the point of view of the young infantrymen who fought in it, the men who risked their lives doing the job they were told to do, in a war they did not always understand. As one of the few novels about the Vietnam War aimed at a young adult readership, Fallen Angels is both an exciting war story and a coming-of-age story. However, the reader should be cautioned that because of the author's realistic approach, Fallen Angels employs strong language of the kind that actual soldiers might use. There are also scenes in which the violence of war is graphically described.

Author Biography

Walter Dean Myers was born on August 12, 1937, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. His mother died when he was three, and he was adopted by

Herbert and Florence Dean, who moved to Harlem, New York City. He started writing poems and short stories while still in school, discovering that he enjoyed being a storyteller. He also read voraciously, borrowing books from the public library. His family could not afford to send him to college, and he left high school without graduating. At the age of seventeen, he joined the U.S. Army for three years. After that, he worked in various jobs, including factories, construction, and the post office, while pursuing his hobby of writing. His career as a writer began when he won a contest for picture book writers. His story became the basis of his first book, Where Does the Day Go? (1969). During the 1970s, he wrote more picture books while also working in an editorial position at the Dobbs-Merrill publishing company. During this