49 pages • 1 hour read
Walter Dean MyersFallen Angels
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Walter Dean Myers
Walter Dean Myers was a prolific African American author who was best known for his young adult novels that discuss the complex life experiences of African American youths. Myers was born in 1937 in West Virginia. He was raised by two foster parents in Harlem, New York, after the death of his mother when he was two years old. Meyers developed a passion for reading and writing as a child; he would spend hours at the public library reading, immersing himself in the world of literature. His passion for reading would later become the driving force behind his career as an author.
Myers served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1957, and he began writing about his experiences in the army to shed light on the racism and discrimination that he experienced. Perry and his fellow Black soldiers also experience racism and discrimination in Fallen Angels. In 1969, Myers published his first novel, Where Does the Day Go?, a picture book for children that won a contest held by the Council on Interracial Books for Children. Myers worked at a publishing house called Bobbs-Merrill Company for several years as an acquisitions editor supporting Black authors and readers. In 1977, Myers began to write full-time, focusing on the experiences of economically disadvantaged young adults in America, specifically African American children living in Harlem where he grew up. Perry, the protagonist of this novel, is from Harlem, and he worries about his brother experiencing racial tensions back home. Myers’s novels explore diverse urban experiences, portraying characters involved in gang life, survivors of systemic racism, and the young men who fought in global conflicts such as the Vietnam War.
Throughout his career, Myers won numerous awards for his writing. These awards include two Newbery Honors Awards, five Coretta Scott King Awards, and three National Book Award nominations. After his death in 2014, a prize program that celebrates diversity in books for young adults and children was created in his honor; this award was named The Walter Award and was first presented in 2016. In 2019, Myers was posthumously awarded the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his significant and influential contributions to children’s literature. Over the course of his life, Myers wrote more than 100 books for young people, cementing his place as one of the most prolific authors for young adults in American literature (Leong, Ernest. “Walter Dean Myers.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Sep. 2023).
Socio-Historical Context: Racial and Socio-Economic Issues in the US During the 1970s
During the 1970s, the United States faced significant challenges in dealing with the racial and socio-economic issues that shaped the country’s cultural climate and social landscape. Racial tensions were very high during this decade. These tensions are clear in Fallen Angels when Sergeant Dongan enacts racist policies in Perry’s squad. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1968, the African American community continued to fight for equality. During this decade, discrimination in housing and employment persisted, leaving many African Americans impoverished. Groups like the Black Panthers and the National Urban League became more prominent during this time as they advocated for equal rights and more economic opportunities for African American individuals.
Socio-economic inequality also become a pressing matter in the 1970s. An economic downturn paired with the oil crisis led to high rates of unemployment, inflation, and stagnant wages. These conditions exacerbated already existing socio-economic disparities between different classes and races, increasing poverty rates throughout the country. Myers explores this implicitly when Perry joins up at the beginning of the novel; he believes the army’s promise that they can help him economically. The intersection of racial discrimination and socio-economic inequality became increasingly apparent in this decade as marginalized communities’ issues were largely tied to their economic standing. Limited access to resources and discrimination further compounded the socio-economic issues faced by minorities, leading these communities to be disproportionately impacted by poverty.
Historical Context: America’s Role in the Vietnam War
The United States’s role in the Vietnam War remains one of the most controversial topics in modern history. The Vietnam War lasted from 1954 to 1975, but the United States did not send troops to Vietnam until 1965. The US fought as allies with the government of South Vietnam against the communist government of North Vietnam and its Southern allies, the Viet Cong. The war should be considered in the larger context of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, as the US attempted to stop the spread of communism. North Vietnam had desired to unify the entire country under a single communist government. Conversely, the South Vietnamese government wanted to preserve their alignment with capitalist ideals.
In 1965, the United States introduced combat units into Vietnam, and by 1969, more than 500,000 US personnel were stationed there. Meanwhile, China and the Soviet Union supplied the Northern Vietnamese government with weapons, supplies, and advisors. The loss of human life during the long war was devastating on both sides. It is estimated that more than two million civilians on both sides were casualties of the war; North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters saw over a million deaths as well. It is estimated that approximately 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the conflict alongside 57,939 members of the United States armed forces who died or were reported missing. In Fallen Angels, Perry begins to doubt the goal of fighting communism as he witnesses the human cost of the war. Due to the high costs and immeasurable casualties of the war, the United States withdrew its combat units in 1973. South Vietnam was defeated by the Northern Vietnamese forces in 1975 (Spector, Ronald H. “Vietnam War.” Britannica, 18 Jan. 2024).
Throughout Fallen Angels, the narrator, Richie Perry, tries to come to terms with the reality of the war. As he experiences the atrocities of war and learns of the many anti-war protests occurring in the United States, he can’t help but contemplate the morality of this specific conflict. The setting of the Vietnam War allows Myers to portray a time of controversy to highlight The Ambiguity of War in general; this becomes one of the major themes within the novel. Fallen Angels received mixed criticisms upon its publication, and it was branded by some as an “anti-war” novel.
US involvement in the Vietnam war was extremely controversial. The anti-war movement began on college campuses in 1965 after the US began bombing Northern Vietnam. They were widely ignored, but by 1967, as US casualties increased and over $25 billion was spent to fund the war annually, the public began to become disillusioned with the war. Myers explores this in Fallen Angels as Perry’s attitudes change from supporting the war to condemning it. The introduction of a draft system added fuel to the anti-war movement. Many public demonstrations and protests took place, including the anti-war demonstration on October 21, 1967, where over 100,000 protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. The anti-war movement also grew as civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. publicly condemned the war and its disproportionate number of African American casualties (“Vietnam War Protests.” History, 1 Nov. 2022). Myers portrays reasons for these casualties when Sergeant Dongan attempts to put African American soldiers in the most dangerous positions in the squad.
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