Summary Of My Brother Sam Is Dead

“War turns men into beasts,” Mrs. Meeker explained (Collier and Collier 140). In the novel My Brother Sam is Dead by James and Christopher Collier, Tim Meeker watched the Revolutionary War rage on. In the town of Redding Ridge, Connecticut Tim and his family, which includes his father, mother, and brother, are mostly Tories, except for Tim’s older brother, Sam who has joined the war, fighting for the Patriots. Through the story, Tim is struggling to decide which side he supports—the Patriots or the British, or whether he supports or disagrees with war. Although both sides of war are shown, authors Collier and Collier ultimately argue that war is futile. One way the authors argue against war is that it is gruesome and worthless. There are many deaths throughout the story, including Mr. Meeker’s

In order to run the family tavern, Father and Tim needed to go to Verplancks Point to sell cattle, and use the money to buy supplies for the tavern. On the way back, Father rode ahead of Tim on horseback to watch out for cow-boys, pesky stealers who claimed they were Patriots. “The cow-boys had lain in ambush in the hemlock groves, jumped Father, and taken him away someplace,” (Collier and Collier 119). As the reader can see, Father was gone. Later, the reader finds out that Mr. Meeker had died on a British prison ship. Another example is Sam Meeker’s death. Sam had been accused of stealing his own cattle, and for this reason was later executed. The worst part is not that he was killed for being proven guilty; no one thought he was guilty. As stated in the novel, “He (General Putnam) is determined to scare the wits out of the troops to keep them in line. And he’s thinking that it doesn’t matter