My Brother Sam Is Dead By Collier Brothers

The war is brutal, but it can also bring many positives for both sides currently or later in the future. For example, in the American Revolution, war brought freedom to the Patriots and ended their oppression by the British. However, war also brings death to many innocent civilians, demolishes homes, and devastates families. Both sides, Loyalists and Patriots, end up losing and winning something in the American Revolution. In the novel, My Brother Sam is Dead, written by the Collier Brothers, Tim Meeker faces the positives and negatives of war. War is negative because of the injustice of Jerry, Life, and Sam’s death, all of which convince Tim to become neutral. First, Jerry’s death induces Tim’s neutrality because the British soldiers chose

He’s dead. He got sick and died in three weeks.“‘ The brutality Tim sees makes him question the Loyalist side as Betsy says,”’ Why imprison a ten-year-old boy?”’ (Collier 166). Furthermore, Betsy states,”’ They sunk his body in Long Island Sound in a weighted sack.so his parents can’t even get him back.”’ The brutality of Jerry’s death causes Tim to think it was fair for the British to imprison and kill Jerry because they had the power to do so. However, it is ironic because there were far more important people that the British soldiers could have taken such as Mr.Rogers and Captain Betts, but instead, they imprisoned a ten-year-old boy. What is so upsetting about Jerry’s death is him being unretrievable and his body remaining in the ocean. Tim becomes neutral based on this death because it was his friend being killed and the British side had no reason for killing him, and not letting his body rest in peace. Secondly, Life’s death sways Tim from becoming neutral because the British took Life and killed him on a British prison ship that Life once stood with. Tim acknowledges his father’s death when someone on the same boat tells Tim and his mother the