Summary Of The Book 'My Brother Sam Is Dead'

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My Brother Sam is Dead-Argumentative Essay

In the book My Brother Sam is Dead, occurring during the Revolutionary War, the Meeker family is torn apart. Sam Meeker is a head-strong young adult that has decided to play soldier boy. Eliphalet or Life, Sam and Tim’s father, firmly believes Sam should have stayed home to help the family and stay loyal to King George III. Tim, Sam’s younger brother, is unsure which side is right, even though he has witnessed many arguments. Life is entirely correct, it is ridiculous for Sam to go and get himself killed. Sam should have stayed home in Redding and supported the family.

First of all, the family could have had the brown bess, the family gun, and the Continentals (Rebel troops) wouldn’t have attacked them. The text reads, “We know you have a weapon, Meeker. Where is it?” The Continentals demanded Life to give up a weapon he didn’t even have! The book also states, “He jabbed the sword forward as if he was going to stick it into Father, and at the same time the men holding Father gave him a jerk.” The Rebels wouldn’t have beaten him up if he would’ve had the brown bess. Life could have either shot the Continentals, or given them the gun. If Sam wouldn’t have stolen the gun for petty personal reasons, everything would’ve been …show more content…

The book reads, “I stood there in the snow trying to think, but my mind just stopped working.” If Sam would have been there with Tim, they could’ve thought of a reasonable plan, and Tim wouldn’t have freaked out. He got anxious and made a bad split second decision. The text also states, “What I wanted to do was start running and not stop until I got home.” Tim is just a scared little boy, there is no way he’d get to Life in time to save him from the cow-boys. On the condition that Sam was there, he could’ve gotten to Life faster and might have saved him. They could have overpowered the cow-boys if a muscular man like Sam was