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My Brother Sam Is Dead Essay

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War is one of the most controversial and fascinating aspects of human life, which includes sacrifice, argument, and worst of all human death. The argument of war is whether or not the sacrifice of human life is necessary or not. The authors of My Brother Sam Is Dead are totally against war; they are neutral and they give Tim the same idea as them in the novel. They even show the irony and cruelty of war in the book by the punishing and ironic deaths of Ned, Sam, and Life. This novel is based in Redding, Conneticut during the time of the Revolutionary War. Tim Meeker’s family has been split up as a result of the war because Tim’s father is a loyalist while his brother, who he looks up to, enrolls in the war as a Patriot. Tim has to grow up through the novel and he has to decide for himself …show more content…

Out of most deaths, it looks like Tim is more impacted by Sam’s than any other. Tim is outraged that Sam is being blamed and punished for something he didn’t do just to discipline the other soldiers.Sam is accused of stealing his own cattle and is sentenced to be executed by his own side; Tim watches the execution full-heartedly, in sadness, and he even yells out during the execution, “ ‘Don’t shoot him, don’t shoot him’ and at that moment Sam slammed backwards as if he was hit by a mallet” (208). Those were Tim’s final words that Sam could here before being blasted. Sam’s passing is as ironic a death you could write for Sam because Tim expected Sam to die, if he were to die in war, in battle and have a glory story with many telling points. 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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Vowell’s writing style is superior to Dillard’s because she makes allusions to warfare and separaion, which accentuates the gravity of the emotional quarrel she faced in her youth within her own family. Vowell begins her essay by explaining her and her father’s contrasting political views. Her home is described as a “house divided… [her] home [could be seen] for the Civil war battleground it was… the kitchen and the living room were well within the DMZ… guarded by totalitarian states… each of [them] declared [themselves] dictator” (Vowell). The American Civil War earned the nickname a “battle between brothers,” because Americans were killing other Americans over the distribution of federal power. By alluding to the American Civil war, Vowell parallels the hostility arising over the dispute of political ideals by a growing country at war with the arguments she had with her father.

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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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MY BOOK PROJECT I read the book “My brother Sam is dead” that was wrote by the Author James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. It is a Historical Fiction book wrote during the American Revolutionary war. This book is about a boy named Timothy Meeker that lived in Connecticut. Tim's father is a Loyalist at great Britain but Sam (Tim’s older teenage brother) came home from Yale and announced that he joined the Continental Army to fight against the British. His Father was outraged and yelled and fought with him like they normally did and Sam ran away and hid in a little hut for a little while.

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In the book “My brother Sam is dead”, Sam wants to go and fight with the Patriots but his father strongly disagrees with his son, Sam. This war is known as the Revolutionary War. Sam’s younger brother, Tim, doesn’t know which side to pick. He can either go with his father who is a Loyalist or he can side with his brother sam, who is fighting for the Patriots. Life is fearful for his son going into battle and doesn’t want his son to have the same experience as he did.

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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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Tim Meeker is a little boy who lives in Redding, Connecticut around the time the American Revolution begins. Tim does not care for politics at all, but his father is a loyalist to Great Britain, much like the rest of Redding. Tim’s entire family likes his older brother Sam. Sam joined the Continental Army to fight against the British but his father

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Many tears were shed and lives lost. The Meekers were a family that say the grim brutality of war, more than the glory. In My Brother Sam is Dead, although both sides of the war are shown, author's Collier and Collier ultimately argue that war is futile. Disagreement during the war can prove to be fatal to families. While the war was occurring, many boys made the choice to leave home and fight for their country.

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The chapter also showed how the war shaped and changed the way Tim O’Brien thought and dealt with things. “After the rot cleared up, once I could think straight, I devoted a lot of

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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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Some people still wonder if war can be justified by its principles or cause. It can be argued that war can be justified due to the principles of freedom and justice that soldiers are willing to die for. However, many argue against this saying that war should be avoided at all costs due to collateral damage and the massive loss of innocent life. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, Tim faces the biggest dilemma of his life when he has to decide whether to side with his brother who believes in the principles of war or his father who believes war should be avoided at all costs. When the novel comes to a conclusion, Tim decides that he is neutral and does not agree to either argument due to the irony contained within the deaths of

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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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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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You die in the war in more ways than one. Sam could have been a patriot from his home. He could have stayed home and been safe and still believed what he believed. He risked his life and caused his family a lot of pain for something he could have supported at home. Sam’s family needs help around the farm and the tavern.

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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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What was once a lukewarm stance on the war turned into a fiery, passionate hatred for the war and anyone who agreed with it. He began to loathe even the people in his hometown; he “held them responsible.” He described his state of mind as a kind of schizophrenia, and his entire life revolved around the draft notice. Even the description of his workplace turned into an ambience of war, calling the tools he used “guns,” and discussing how the odor never left his skin, just like the thought of killing someone at war would never leave him. Tim became ashamed of his country, unsure of the USS maddox, unsure of what happened in the Gulf of Tonkin and unsure about the people leading the war.

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