User:Lal579/Fallen Angels (Myers novel)

Fallen Angels is a young adult fiction novel written in 1988 by Walter Dean Myers to highlight the story of Ritchie Perry and his experience serving in the Vietnam War. Ritchie Perry is a 17-year-old kid from Harlem who enlists in the army and is then ordered directly into combat. While serving, Perry endures various forms of trauma, ranging from racism to witnessing the butchering of innocents, and the storyline captures the effects of such experiences on Perry over time. Walter Dean Myers became a notable young adult fiction author and received many prestigious achievements. In addition to these accomplishments, Myers also played a critical role in shaping this genre into a more representative form of literature for people of color. Despite many obstacles that he faced throughout his career, he created an accomplished portfolio of novels. Since the release of Fallen Angels, the novel has received praise and criticism from a wide range of sources.  For example, the novel was awarded the Coretta Scott King Award in 1989; however, it has also consistently been on the American Library Association's Banned Books List for the last 30 years. Due to this polarizing reception, the novel has become notably controversial over time and has sparked meaningful discourse about the balance between graphic content and educational value.

Background

Walter Dean Myers was born in West Virginia; however, he eventually moved to Harlem, New York, after his family life worsened. After the early passing of Myer’s mother, his father became an unstable parental figure and no longer had the means to raise a child. As a result of this instability, a couple fostered Myers and provided him a new start to life in New York. Myers had a passion for reading and writing from an early age, whether it was reading magazines with his foster mom or writing short stories during his high school years. However, that passion was put on pause when he dropped out of high school to serve in the Army at 17 years old. After serving in the Army, he decided to pursue his passion for writing once again and found success in the young adult fiction genre. Within this genre, the writers were predominantly young, white women, and as a 60-year old, black man, the pursuit of this genre was uncommon. Additionally, literature depicting African Americans’ childhood experiences were not widespread at the time of his career; however, through novels like Fallen Angels, he became one of the first authors to successfully challenge this societal issue. Despite these challenges, Myers went on to earn the following achievements:

• Named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by Library of Congress, 2012
• New York City Literary Honor for Children’s Literature, 2012
• Rutgers University Medal for the Literature of Children and Young Adults, 2011
• Honorary Doctor of Letters from Amherst College, 2010
• Chicago Tribune Prize for Writers of Young Adult Literature, 2010
• Coretta Scott King Award Winner in 2014, 2011, 2000, 1997, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1989, 1985, 1980, 1976
• Jeremiah Ludington Award from the Educational Paperback Association, 2009
• May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer, 2009
• Katharine Drexel Award from the Catholic Library Association, 2008
• West Virginia Library Association Literary Merit Award, 2008
• University of Minnesota Kerlan Award, 2008
• University of Southern Mississippi Medallion, 2006
• Virginia Hamilton Liberary Award, 1999
• Anne V. Zarrow Award, 1996
• Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement, 1994
• Alan Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Young Adult Literature, 1994
• MacDowell Fellowship, 1988
• National Endowment for the Arts Grant, 1982
• New Jersey State Council for the Arts Fellowship, 1981

Myers has authored more than a hundred books (Monster, Motown and Didi, Scorpions, Autobiography of My Dead Brother) and has received many prestigious awards. Myers also wrote Sunrise Over Fallujah (Scholastic, 2008), a sequel to Fallen Angels, and it follows a young U.S. soldier's experience during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq; and five years after that, Myers wrote Invasion (Scholastic, 2013), a prequel to Fallen Angels, and it covers D-Day during World War II.Through his novels, many within the young adult fiction genre, Myers played a critical role in shaping this genre into a more inclusive environment for readers and writers of color; he further pursued this role as an ambassador to the Library of Congress for Young People's Literature.

Plot Summary

After graduating high school, Richie Perry enlists in the United States Army to serve in the Vietnam War. Before enlisting, Richie had several preconceived notions about what his military experience would be. More specifically, he had a serious medical condition with his knee that he felt would excuse him from ever actually engaging in combat. Richie eventually meets two other recruits, Harold “Peewee” Gates and Jenkins, and he begins to form a strong friendship with each of them. As he predicted, he is assigned to Chu Lai, a station known for its light work and lack of combat. However, Richie soon learns that this would not be the case as he loses Jenkins in combat, and more soldiers start to arrive at Chu Lai. This incident significantly affects Richie as this was his first experience with the horrors that come with engaging in war. Unfortunately, Jenkins’s death is only the beginning of the many tragedies that Richie will live through, which drastically affect Richie’s perception of the world. He starts to question their purpose for the war, why he cannot express his emotions about the traumas that he has endured, and why he is simply unable to process these experiences. Additionally, Richie begins to reflect on his life before the war and finds a greater understanding of himself. He often struggles with the idea that he joined the Army due to his family’s lack of financial capabilities and has chosen to suppress his dreams of becoming a writer. Richie goes on to endure combat injuries, extreme emotional distress, and daily racism. For example, there is one squad leader, Sergeant Simpson, who views black people as disposable and reflects these views whenever he places them on the front lines of the riskiest operations. However, Richie’s fate changes as he is eventually granted a discharge from the army due to his combat wounds’ severity. Richie can finally leave Vietnam with his friend, Peewee, and receives a second chance at the life he left behind.

Reception

Fallen Angels has been highly controversial due to the polarizing perceptions surrounding its use in the school system. According to the American Library Association, Fallen Angels has ranked number 36 on the top 100 banned books list from 1990-1999, number 11 on the same list from 2000-2009, and number 85 on the same list from 2010-2019.

While there are some individuals/organizations who feel that the novel offers a perspective of critical importance about the Vietnam War to young adults, there are also some who view the novel’s content as far too graphic for young adults and feel that it should be removed from any book lists that a young adult should see. Proponents of Fallen Angels believe that the novel’s content has educational value for young adults as it can broaden their perspectives in a unique way and that graphic content is necessary to convey mature topics. For example, Larry Johannesson of the English Journal argues that when students are given the resources to understand the Vietnam War better, it will translate into a necessary appreciation for previous generations and the suffering that they endured. Additionally, people who support the novel argue that its use of strong language does not necessarily encourage young readers to use such language and feel that there is no point in sheltering young adults. Critics of Fallen Angels believe that the language used, detailed depictions of violent scenes, and overall “shock” that the reader experiences make the novel inappropriate for educational settings. One critic of the novel was the Laton School Board, who removed the book from their reading lists due to its use of profanity and to protect the young audience of first-year students. Additionally, this novel, like many in the young adult fiction category, has been criticized for its use in schools due to a lack of educational value; some educators feel that since a novel like this would never show up on an Advanced Placement exam that there is no reason to teach it in the class. The novel has also been criticized on multiple occasions by veterans for advancing a negative perception of soldiers due to the language they are shown to use throughout the book. In short, these two contrasting perspectives of the novel have contributed to many notable successes of the novel, like the Coretta Scott King award, and also many notable failures such as Fallen Angel's long-standing presence on the American Library Association's Banned Books List; however, as time goes, these perspectives are continually evolving and more members of academia are starting to challenge the idea of censorship and the specific criticisms that lead to it.