My Brother Sam Is Dead Study Guide
The brilliant piece of historical fiction, this is the story about the Revolutionary War and the rite of passage for the young Tim. The families are torn apart by the conflict of political interests and his own one isn’t spared. Tim’s older brother, who is only sixteen years old, joins the resistance to fight the British government, while his father stays loyal to the crown. Tim has to make his own choice between the two closest people he has and grow up very fast in the turmoil of war.
This book is the story about family bonds that are so hard and sometimes impossible to preserve, when something higher than personal values comes into play. At the beginning of the story Tim still believes that everything is still fixable, the family can be reunited and remain neutral, not participating in the war and staying safe. But gradually, this hope fades.
Despite it the novel belongs to the juvenile fiction genre, the amount of violence depicted in the book is overwhelming. It isn’t the typical war story, it is still more concentrated on Tim’s coming of age, but the author never lets us forget that this is the book about war.
To make his ultimate choice, Tim has to give up his innocent and naive beliefs that everything will settle down somehow by itself. But then he has to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions he has to ask himself. Who he is and what his ideals are? Is he making the choice to be with one of the family members or because his ideals say so?
“My Brother Sam Is Dead” is the story about the toughest growing up ever. Despite Tim didn’t do anything heroic yet, he remains a hero because of the sheer willpower he needs to remain sane and take responsibility for such a horrible choice.
Author: Wayne Byrd
New Essays
“We woke up before the sun, hitched the oxen to the wagon, herded the cattle out of the Platt's pasture where they had spent the night, and started off again on the road toward Peekskill. Peekskill was on the Hudson River. We would turn south there and go down the river about five miles to...
?My Brother Sam is Dead By: Christopher Collier & James Lincoln Collier This book begins with Sam Meeker, Tim Meeker's admired older brother, arrives in uniform at the Meeker tavern one rainy April evening in 1775. "We've beaten the British in Massachusetts," Sam exclaims, beginning a fight...
?Jimmy McPerson Mr. Teacher AP US History 14 August 2013 My Brother Sam is Dead Analysis In the novel My Brother Sam is Dead, written by Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier, a headstrong lad by the name of Sam Meekers joins in the rebel cause in the Civil War much to his fathers chagrin...
Rachael Felt3/10/10 Character Analysis Essay for My Brother Sam is DeadELA 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...