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My Brother Sam Is Dead By James And Christopher Collier

666 Words3 Pages

The Essence of Betrayal

The American Revolution was a war of principles fought between the loyalists who believed in neutrality, peaceful negotiation, against treason, and against loss of land. The patriots believed in freedom, the right to bear arms, freedom of religion, and the power to peacefully assemble. In the novel, My Brother Sam is Dead written by James and Christopher Collier show how it was back at this time in the American Revolution and all the sacrifices that were made for this country. James and Christopher Collier use My Brother Sam is Dead to influence the hardship and pain and loss of war. Irony convinces Tim to take a neutral stance toward war because of the senseless brutality against Life, Jerry, and Sam. This is true because this made Tim realize war is brutal and there is another way for peace, so he decides to remain neutral. …show more content…

For example, Tim discovers that his father has been taken by cowboys on their way home from Verplanks Point. I the novel, Tim says, “In June of that year 1777, we found out that father was dead… it wasn’t rebel prison ship, it was a British one. Tim expects that his father was killed by the cowboys that previously captured him. He was not expecting him to be killed by the side he was supporting. This upsets Tim and he learns war is unfair, innocent people die and it is very brutal, and none of this leads to rewards. Tim decides to be neutral because he doesn’t want to align himself with either side because they are both unfair and kill innocent

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My Brother Sam Is Dead Chapter 1: Page 1-22 Sam is Tim Meeker 's older brother. Tim always looks up to his older brother. Sam then comes home in a uniform at the tavern during April. He starts out by saying "We 've beaten the British in Massachusetts," which sparks up a fight between him and his father which is a loyalist (someone who respects the government and the king). Sam has a discussion with the guests at their tavern and his family on how the Minutemen had surprise attack on the "Lobster backs" (the British) in Lexington.

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He made up stories about the guy he killed, but that only made him feel more guilt. “ …the man I killed would have listened to stories about the heroic Trung sisters and Tran Hung Dao’s famous rout of the Mongols… He would have been taught that to defend the land…” (53). Throughout the story Kiowa and Azar tried getting Tim to talk about the situation they were in, but all he did was imagine stories about the dead man to himself. Constantly making up stories, Tim thinks to himself, “…despite his family’s poverty, the man I killed would have been determined to continue his education in mathematics” (55).

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In the historical fiction novel, My Brother Sam is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, Tim learns that no matter what side of war you are on it is still bloody and horrid and should be avoided. In the exposition of the novel, Tim Meeker, is a tweenaged boy who is a hard working boy caught in the middle of the American Revolution. As the conflict develops, Tim faces the challenge of surviving the war and staying out of trouble while still trying to decide what side of the war he was on. In the rising action of the story, Tim Meeker, watches his brother, Sam Meeker, announce that he left college and signed up to fight in the war on the patriots side.

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Since he opposes the war originally, Tim has to alter his ideologies completely. He is forced to do something he once thought unfathomable, in order to become a soldier, and “take aim at another human being” (175). By doing this just to avoid “patriotic ridicule” (186) Tim goes against everything he believes in solely to ensure people do not judge him. Tim chooses to make tremendous sacrifices of not only his own life but is forced to live with the blood of those he will have to kill. Even if he does survive the war, he will never be the same due to what he sees or does while in Vietnam.

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From his father’s death, Tim sadly learned that loyalty, trust, and devotion are not valued or rewarded. Tim believes that people should not be loyal to a side that is underhanded in return. Tim’s final decision was to join the neutral side because he learns the Loyalists are deceptive, brutal, hypocrites, who kill innocent people for no reason at

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The irony of Jerry, Life, and Sam’s death all influence Tim’s decision of neutrality. The ironic and injustice way Jerry’s dies influences Tim’s decision to become neutral about war. Jerry, Tim’s best friend, gets captured by the British and dies in the prison ship. He worked on the farm and no one knew that such a tragedy could happen to him.

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Tim is obsessed with getting honor and glory; when he saw that war did not always promise that outcome, he wanted to avoid fighting and become

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Tim would have expected Life to be the most safe one of their family due to his loyalty to Britain, but he was captured anyway. The death of Life Meeker makes Tim develop a strong hatred toward the Loyalists due to the fact that they do not value loyalty or care about the innocent, such as this instance. Tis develops Tim’s final decision of neutrality is influenced by Jerry’s death because both the British and Patriots caused the death of the ones he cared most

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Tim was very mad and sad that the Loyalists killed his best friend in a brutal way when he did nothing wrong. Tim stays neutral because the war is betraying people and being

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The majority of people during the American Revolution fought for liberty without realizing the actual cost and brutal reality of war. In the novel My Brother Sam is Dead, the Meeker family consisting of a Father name Life, a Mother named Susannah, a rebellious teen named Sam, and a conflicted teen named Tim, journey through the life of colonists owning a tavern during the Revolutionary War. Sam departs from his family to fight alongside the Patriots going against his Father, a Tory. War brings a lot of terrible things, but some examples are families splitting, clash of generation, and an overall theme of principle vs reality. The soldiers who fought in the war thought they were fighting for liberty, when really they caused havoc and awfulness.

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Because Life, a loyalist who died by the British; Sam, who was executed by his fellow companions and Jerry, a ten year old, who died for no reason; these horrendous events scrounge around Tim’s mind, he making him convinced that he will take a neutral stance.

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In “On the Rainy River” Tim struggles to make a decision on whether he should fight for his country in the war or flee to Canada. Tim did not believe in the war. He was an innocent young man, freshly graduated from college with a naive view of the world. “Both my conscience and my instincts were telling me to make a break for it, just take off and run like hell and never stop.” (Page 3/Paragraph 8)

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Tim’s expectations were not the case; instead Sam dies by being accused incorrectly of stealing his own cattle to teach other troops a lesson about how serious war is. The unecessary death of Sam inspires Tim to go neutral because Sam was not rewarded for valor and had no glory to his name. Tim doesn’t like that or want that so he chooses neither side of the

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There was no sense of morality or politics or duty. Tim completed what he was trained to do, and that was to defend the camp against the enemy. The lone soldier was the enemy. Later Tim views his actions as impulsive and regrets throwing the grenade, despite his peers’ support. Tim declares, “Sometimes I forgive myself, sometimes I don’t.

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I went to the war.” (last paragraph 58) This helps us understand that going to war was not an accomplishment for Tim. He regretted not running away and hated that he went.

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