My Brother Sam Is Dead By The Collier Brothers

The Injustice War is like a two-sided war. For example, war can improve society, government, and freedom. However, war can also bring death, destruction, and loss of lives. The Patriots and the Loyalists fight each other for their own beliefs. In the novel, My Brother Sam is Dead, written by the Collier Brothers, Tim Meeker learns the positives and negatives of war. The brutality of war convinces Tim to take a neutral stance toward war because of the senseless brutality against Jerry, Life, and Sam. First, Jeremiah Sanford’s death induces Tim’s neutrality. For example, Jerry’s dead body was thrown over the British prison ship, into the sea in a weighted sack. Instead of the empathy and pity everyone expects, Jerry experiences the cruelty of war: “. You can understand why they took Mr. Rogers

“So his parents can’t even get him back.” (Collier 166). Tim expected the British to release Jerry along with the other citizens that the British captured but instead was imprisoned, became ill, and died. Instead of a proper burial or returning the body to his parents, the British threw his body over the ship in a weighted sack. The death of Jerry shows that the war has changed the men: “What harm could he have done to them,” Mother said. Collier 166. Tim’s neutrality was induced by Jerry’s death because of the cruelty that was shown. Second, Life Meeker’s death promotes Tim’s neutrality. Additionally, Life, a devoted British, was captured and thrown into a British prison ship instead of a Rebel one. Rather than being freed, the British kept him in the prison ship: “., though–it wasn’t a Rebel prison ship, it was a British one.” (Collier 164). “That’s what had happened to Father. They had an epidemic of cholera on the prison ship he’d been on. About forty or fifty people died from it, and he’d been one of them.” (Collier 165). Tim expected the British to let Life go since he was British, but died