Literary Devices in Sunrise Over Fallujah
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
For Birdy, a teenager from Harlem, Iraq might as well be the dark side of the moon. The hustle and bustle of New York City is about as far from the desertscape and ancient buildings of Iraq as you...
Narrator Point of View
The narrative point of view in Sunrise Over Fallujah is as straight as a line of soldiers standing at attention: it's all Birdy, all the time.Robin (a.k.a Birdy) is a private, the army's lowest enl...
Genre
The next time someone—probably a snooty-looking kid who wears a beret in order to look tres French—suggests that YA lit isn't hard-hitting, give them a copy of Sunrise Over Fallujah.Because thi...
Tone
Wars are pretty much all about sides. Good vs. bad. Us vs. them. The Rebel Alliance vs. Stormtroopers. (Yep, even fictional wars are all about sides.)But, despite the fact that this is a book about...
Writing Style
Let's face it: you don't usually think of "soldiers" and "poetic language" at the same time. "Poetic language" conjures up images of people lying around wearing billowy blouses and watching the wav...
What's Up With the Title?
Birdy doesn't even make it to Fallujah, the Iraqi town mentioned in the title, until more than halfway through the book. Our main man spends more time in places like Baghdad. So why does this parti...
What's Up With the Ending?
Everyone lives happily ever after? They all go to the beach? There's a wedding and everyone does the Chicken Dance?No such luck, guys.Birdy's time in Iraq is summed up by the final letter he writes...
Tough-o-Meter
Seriously: the hardest part of reading this book is keeping track of all the generals, lieutenants, and specialists, and places. Especially the places. Birdy's unit travels from village to city to...
Plot Analysis
Where They're AtRobin Perry, a.k.a. Birdy, is in Kuwait, waiting to be sent into Iraq…maybe. They still don't know if dictator Saddam Hussein will surrender and they'll get sent home. And they do...
Trivia
The three women Birdy meets who were then captured are real people: Jessica Lynch, Lori Ann Piestew, and Shoshana Johnson. Jessica and Shoshana were rescued, while Lori died from injuries as a pris...
Steaminess Rating
There are scenes from this book that you shouldn't read aloud to your five-year-old cousin, but not a single one of them involves any sexytimes.Birdy doesn't have a girlfriend (the guy kind of has...
Allusions
Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (9.23-32)The Iraq War (throughout)Bob Marley, "Real Situation" (3.110-114)Destiny's Child, "Survivor" (10.55, 14.404)