Importance Of Neutrality In My Brother Sam Is Dead

Stay Neutral

You Can’t Trust Anyone

Freedom is a positive outcome of war that people wish to achieve, but do people consider the negatives too? Major loss can come with the brutality of war. In my My Brother Sam is Dead the author helps you explore the negatives of war and the tough decisions for a young boy living through the American Revolution. The young boy, Tim, had to choose a side, to part with his brother as a Patriot or obey his father’s wants and be a Loyalist. After many traumatic events, including the harsh deaths of Jerry, Sam, and Life, Tim decides to stay neutral.

The cruel and unnecessary death of Tim’s best friend, Jerry, had a major impact on his choice of neutrality. Losing anybody in your life can make a drastic impact on a person’s life but it was the way Jerry had died that really made Tim think about his choice. Jerry had been taken by the

Learning your brother has passed is sad but watching him be murdered is the most traumatic thing a young boy could be put through. Sam had been accused of cattle theft, but it was his own cattle. Tim tried to explain to general Putnam but he refused to listen saying that the execution would show soldiers that they will be punished for their actions and might save civilians lives. They went on with the execution and “shot him so close that his clothes were on fire.he went on jerking with flames on his chest until another soldier shot him again.then he stopped jerking”(208). The patriots killed on of their own to save others. Sam did not do anything and was totally innocent but he did not have enough telling points to prove that he was. It was unfair that instead of somebody that actually committed a crime was not executed as an example. Tim would not want to choose a side where he was not protected by his own people. Being neutral was the best choice for Tim since he was against war overall and did not want to support either