Many people debate over whether war is a “necessary evil” or an unnecessary one. War has many perks, some being positive and some being negative, making it hard to decide if it is necessary. The negatives of war is told in the book, My Brother Sam is Dead by James Collier and Christopher Collier. Taking place during the Revolutionary War, My Brother Sam is Dead tells the story of Tim Meeker, a son of a tavern keeper living in Redding, Connecticut. Tim Meeker’s family is split during the war, his brother, Sam, wanting war against the British and his father, Life, who is against the war against the British. Many events happen during the story forging Tim’s opinion to become neutral, such as the deaths of his best friend, father, and brother. …show more content…
Only being a child, Jerry Sanford was captured by the British and put in a prison ship. He ultimately died of the disease infested ship and was sunk to the bottom of the ocean with weights never to be seen again: “‘Jerry? He’s dead?’ ‘...They put him in a prison ship and he got sick and died in three weeks….but why imprison a ten-year-old boy?’”(166). When the British were going through Redding, they took twelve people, but released nine of them. Jerry was sadly one of the three taken. Taking a boy and releasing someone who is of more threat to them is very unreasonable. Tim was very saddened and was angered at the British for it as he thought the British were people he could support at the time. He had lots of fun with Jerry fishing and climbing trees, but he expected to be friends with him for longer. Thinking that the war couldn’t also kill children, Tim decided to go against war, being
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
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.
People are brutal, whether it be a harsh commander with deathly penalties, or even a rude soldier, demanding supplies or a roof from a civilian. Many think war is not the only way, there can be a peaceful solution. Two such people are the authors of My Brother Sam is Dead, James and Christopher Collier. They show this belief through the life of Tim Meeker, who struggles to decide who to side with, his brother, Sam, or his father. The ironic and horrible deaths of Jerry, Ned, and his own brother, Sam, eventually force Tim to choose neutrality.
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.
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.
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.
If he does not conform, he will lose everything including his personal beliefs, on the contrary, if he does conform he risks his life. Conforming in any way, shape or form has consequences, usually ending with losing something. Tim realizes this when he has to chose between himself and others. This could also be a form of peer pressure. Tim has a desire to live a normal life; work and play, a family someday,
The brutality of war has scarred and devastated the world since the beginning of time, and has drastically changed over the course of history. Many precious lives of loved ones have been lost to war and continue to as fighting rages on. Famous Revolutionary War hero, George Washington, stated “My first wish [as president] is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth” (George Washington Quotes). General Washington witnessed the terror of war while fighting for independence from Great Britain. Against his wishes, war and violence continued as history went on.
Then the clash of generations like adults and teens students and adults then children and parents.like adults and sam how the adults want to stay there in peaceIn My Brother Sam Is Dead although both sides of war are shown author 's collier and collier ultimately argue that war is unfair and hard. Like In the war it affected families and tore them apart.they also clash with generations like with adults and tennagers.then principals vs reallity principals as in sam fighting for freedom and reallity like all the horrible deaths.this is the kind of stuff that hapened in My Brother Sam Is Dead whille the revoloutionary war. In My Brother Sam Is Dead there is a lot of conflict in families during the war which leads into divided families. In the book
The Death Of Robert Ross’ Innocence The outcomes of war can sometimes be even worse that the fight itself. Psychological trauma that comes as a result of the events in war changes and forms a person. War is experienced physically and mentally, forcing soldiers to question basic values and beliefs.
The first aspect is Tim’s alcoholism. According to Freud, people’s actions can be caused by repressed memories living in our unconscious. In Tim’s case, his parents both left him and his brother when he was a kid. Now, in the show, Tim doesn’t really ever seem to mention how his parents leaving affected him. So, it is possible, if we apply Freud’s theory, that Tim has repressed the thoughts of his parents leaving to the unconscious part of his brain, so, unknowingly, he drinks to cover up the pain and sadness from that
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.
This quote from the short story illustrates how Tim felt about leaving for the war. He knew that it was against his beliefs for him to leave. He eventually left for the war, still not believing in what he was fighting for which resulted in Tim losing sight of who he was. He allowed the pressures of society to influence him and morph his character into one resemblant of the popular belief of the time. In the story of The Book Thief, Hans Hubermann experiences a similar situation to Tim.
The societal and social pressures weighing on Tim’s mind were explained well in paragraph 28, “My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war.” With Tim’s extreme isolation, it was no surprise that these pressures could manifest in unusual ways. Towards the end of the short, Tim imagines a situation in which his family, friends, strangers, and prominent social figures were yelling at him from the Canadian shore. The societal isolation influenced who was there and what they were yelling. No card burning protesters were there to cheer him on, possibly because a week without the media pushed those memories aside.
Throughout human history, war has been a common solution to settle conflict or disagreements between people. War has and will always be apart of this world, because no matter how much death it causes humans will never change. Some people have come to see the idiocy in war and have even written about it in poems, short stories, etc. One of these people, Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, has mocked this absurd and pointless practice. Twain’s essay The War Prayer satirizes the customs of praying for safety and victory in war and for equating war with patriotism.