My Brother Sam Is Dead Analysis

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Back during the Revolutionary War, families were divided and many people were trying to decide one question. Should they join the side of the Patriots, Loyalists, or remain neutral? War can be a brutal, violent, and cruel way of achieving power or freedom; and in the process, many lives are lost. However, sometimes war is necessary as it helps get rid of tyranny and injustice. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, a boy named Tim Meeker lives in a family where his father is a Loyalist, and his dear brother is a Patriot. Throughout the book, Tim tries to decide what side he is on; then, after a few deaths of people close to him, he decides to remain neutral and oppose war. In My Brother Sam is Dead, Tim makes his decision to remain neutral after the ironic, cruel deaths of Life Meeker, Jerry Sanford, and Sam Meeker. Life Meeker, Tim’s and Sam’s father, was a strong Loyalist. Unfortunately, he was not rewarded for that loyalty. Life was captured by cowboys, who claimed to be Patriots, his way back home from Verplancks Point with Tim. After his father’s capture, Tim decides to become a Tory as he thought the Patriots were the actual ones who took his father away. However, after British soldiers come to his town to kill and capture his Patriot neighbors, he doesn’t want to be a Tory anymore. Even through he decides not to be a Tory, he doesn’t switch over to the Patriot side either. After a few years, after his father’s capture,