Preview

My Brother Sam Is Dead Collier Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
488 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My Brother Sam Is Dead Collier Analysis
One saying that has been passed down from generation to generation is that war is always unjust and evil. The story, My Brother Sam is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, shows how one family was dragged into the war and ripped apart by it. The Meeker family experienced the unfairness of war by losing friends and family and their business suffering. War is unfair for a numerous number of reasons. One particular reason is how it yanks people into it. For example, on page 94, Life Meeker states, “Where it ends up I don’t know and I don’t care.” This shows how people get dragged in. The bulk of people don’t even care about the war and just want to live their lives normally. This isn’t a war citizens can evade since it’s across …show more content…
For example, on page 134 it states, “Oh the effects of it were real the rising prices, the shortages of everything, the news that so-and-so had been killed in some far away battle.” Because of this, everyone is affected. Most farmers need to buy some of their supplies, so the rising prices make it harder for them to make a living. Many people will lose their jobs and starve. On page 190, it says “I didn’t see how they could find Sam guilty, he’d fought for three years, he’d risked his life, how could they decide to punish him for something he hadn’t done? It just didn’t make sense.” This shows that many people die unfairly. The generals don’t care for their soldiers as much as they should. They don’t give any soldiers the justice they deserve. This is unfair to many families because their sons die without glory. In Sam Meeker’s case, he died without justice. He joined the army for the glory of it and never got any. As a result of many people run out of business and some of their family end up in the grave. The Meeker’s experienced things no family should ever endure. This ranges from wrongful death to almost losing their business. Life Meeker once said, “In war the dead pay the debts for the living.” This stays true as Life had to give up his life so that his wife and son could enjoy all their moments on

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rykus 3 My Brother Sam Is Dead In the book “My brother Sam is dead”, Sam comes home from college and joins the American revolutionary army “Patriots” to fight against British “Lobsterbacks”. But Sam’s dad is convinced that the Patriots have any right to fight against the british will be considered treason against the loyalty of the king. After Sam tells his family about joining the Patriots after he got out of college.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The unit that I am preparing is to analyze Christopher and James Lincoln Collier’s (1974) My Brother Sam is Dead. My Brother Sam is Dead is set from 1775 to 1779 during a very volatile and complicated period of the American Revolution; it was not clear which side would win the war. As the story unfolds, the consequences of the war prove devastating to the Meeker family: the rebelliousness of Tim’s brother, Sam, and the pacifist politics of Tim’s father, Life, result in the ironic deaths of both men. Their deaths symbolize the atrocities and unfairness of war.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Brother Sam is Dead tells about the struggles of Sam, Tim, Eliphalet, and Susannah Meeker. The Meeker’s ran a tavern in the small Tory town of Redding, Connecticut. Their story begins in April of 1775 during the American Revolution. Sam was Tim’s older brother. Sam had been away at Yale University for a year, but he decided to join the Patriots army. This caused any problems for the Meeker family, especially since they are Loyalists and side with King George the Third.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The character of Mr. Heron was based off of a real person, William Heron. William Heron was a real person that was part of this time. He was a double agent pretending to support both sides, but was truly there to support the Patriots. Sure we know that now, but how did we figure this out for sure? The authors of My Brother Sam is Dead weren’t as clear as they could’ve been.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the American Revolution Soldiers weren’t the only ones who were at high risk of death. For example in the small town of Redding, Connecticut there was a variety of different opinions on war. Unlike like most happy stories and fairytales there was no good side, there might have been a good cause but no side was considered innocent. The Patriots were killing someone for a crime they did or looked like they were committing even if they were fighting for their side. The British were exaggerating situations to get a chance to execute a fellow loyalist or Patriot. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by, James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier,…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Brother Sam is Dead is a novel that takes place in the late 1700’s. It is about Sam Meeker, a young man who wants to enlist into the Rebel army and his younger brother Tom, who admires Sam for his bravery and courage. Both of their parents were completely against his decision to fight for the rebels, and many of their neighbors and town citizens were against the rebels. This was a very common situation of this time, as most people were against the Rebels, so anyone who was a supporter was most likely to have drama. Just like when Tim’s father sent him out to town to run errands and he ran into a man who was being rude to him just because his brothers decision and his beliefs. Sam and his parents would often fight and argue due to their opposite beliefs.…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What would you have done if you were in the Revolutionary war? In this essay I am compare and contrast two novels. One is My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. The other novel is Colony of Fear by Lucy Jane Bledsoe. The topics to be discussed are setting and characteR in the novels.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The author effectively explains the need for soldiers to die a good death despite missing most characteristics of a traditional death. She helps the reader empathize with the hard decisions that soldiers and military leaders had to make when killing other men that were so like themselves, who were sometimes neighbors or even related by blood. I did feel like the book was somewhat repetitious about certain aspects, but once it moved forward into explaining more facets of the country dealing with the expansive casualties involved with the war, I felt that it was very informative and in depth. I think that anyone that is interested in the early development of our current culture would like to learn about the effect death played in helping to modernize our…

    • 1880 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Brother Sam Is Dead

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages

    My Brother Sam Is Dead by Coller and Coller is a story about a boy named Tim Meeker and how his family falls apart during the Revolutionary War. Throughout the story, Tim is confronted with a life changing dilemma. His father is a Loyalist and his elder brother Sam is a Patriot. He knows that no matter what side he chooses in this war, he will end up fighting his flesh and blood. As the story progresses, Coller and Coller paints a vivid picture of how Tim changes from a boy to a man .…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Meeker family has had a significant impact of division of family in this novel for being against the war. There has been many outbreaks and fights, mainly involving Sam and Mr. Meeker. The first outbreak with the Meeker family was Sam and Mr. Meekers fight in the beginning of the book. It started out with Sam wanting to go to war and father not wanting him to. “ You don’t understand, Father, you just don’t understand. If they won’t let us be free, we have to fight. Why should they get rich off of our taxes?” (Collier, Collier 7). This is a very valid reason for why the author may be for war, but father has his reasons not to go to war. “I will not have treason spoken in my house, Sam. God meant man to obey. He meant children to obey their fathers, he meant man to obey their kings.” (…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    War is often viewed as one of the most dangerous and brutal events ever created. It utterly destroys the humanity and mental state of soldiers fighting in the war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, a world renowned war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the epigraph states that this novel “will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” Staying true to this quote, Remarque tells of the horrors of World War I and fittingly describes the effects that war has on humans through the eyes of the protagonist, Paul Bäumer. In his epigraph Remarque says, “this book is to be neither an accusation, nor a confession, and least of all an adventure.” Except for a few notable exceptions,…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    State of devastation was left behind, once the war had ended and people were free. Families were destroyed with no clue how to rebuild their foundation. War has stained the streets with red, and for the first time people were forced to see the reality of what “turning your cheek” can really do. To let one run so far with they hate had left our society in shambles. This compelled us, as human beings to change. By building off compassion and empathy, to start a new love for our humanity and the generation to come.…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Brother Sam Is Dead

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages

    War has been a constantly occurring event throughout history, from the strife between Homo sapien tribes to terrorists in modern society. However, what if there was some way to achieve the same ending without contentions of war? This is what who can be assumed as brothers and pacifists, James and Christopher Collier, are trying to tell us through their novel, My Brother Sam is Dead. The example they use is the American Revolution. So many people, innocent or evil, were killed. “My Brother Sam is Dead” takes us through these events using the perspective of Tim Meeker, a young boy that watches the war completely change his life. In my Brother Sam is Dead, although multiple sides are shown, authors Collier and Collier ultimately argue that war…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alas, Babylon

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The novel Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank is a satirical piece about the eminence of war and the resilience of humanity. The story told in this novel, in the words of Thomas Payne, “produces panics [that], in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before.” This concept is demonstrated time and time again throughout the entirety of the book. The first example of this is when the brothers meet to discuss the possibility of war. Due to Mark Bragg’s , brother to the main character Randy Bragg, panic he is able to allow the family time to prepare for what is about to come. It causes Randy to worry a great deal as well, but that is insignificant when compared to the several lives that were saved because of it. Another panic that proves to be of more use, than harm is when Randy panics over how to try and save his family, he goes above the call of duty and saves his community by having them all pool their resources and efforts to make the best of their situation. As such the community at River Road becomes the best suited to survive in perhaps the whole surrounding area. If it were not for Randy panicking and enlisting the help of others as well as warning them, none of them would have survived half as well, or perhaps even survived.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Soldiers Thoughts

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Zachary Scott-Singley wrote an essay called “A Soldiers Thoughts”. His essay was based on his inner thoughts and questions, how he should and shouldn’t feel about war. Is war right or wrong? Are these people truly the enemy? What would you do to stay alive? I feel war leaves these questions open to discussion and defiantly can change based on the person and the involvement; but the work of war can change a person’s values and morals.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays