Petruso is a freelance writer with degrees in history and screenwriting. In this essay, Petruso examines Myers's depiction of authority figures in the novel Autobiography of My Dead Brother.

In an interview with Black Issues Book Review, Walter Dean Myers tells interviewer Grace L. Williams,

I write about urban settings because you see that there is a negative public image. People use code words like "inner city" or say things like "ghetto," but you can't feel good about your home and if you never see urban areas depicted as anything but negative, it tells you that where you come from is crap.

While Myers was referring to the settings of his books such as Autobiography of My Dead Brother, this statement could also apply to his depiction of parents and authority figures who live in this urban locale and who help to raise teens like Jesse, C...