Character Analysis: My Brother Sam Is Dead

Wars around the world have impacted life right now. The life now would’ve been very different if there wasn’t any wars. War will divide families, clash generations, and it will principle versus reality. In the book “My Brother Sam is Dead” all three of those things happened, especially division of family. In “My Brother Sam is Dead”, although both sides of war are shown, author's Collier and Collier ultimately argue that war is futile.

Division of family happened a lot of times in war. In the book it happened twice to the Meeker family. First Sam leaves his family for the war and independence. His father tell him that war is not worth it and they get in a big arguement. “Sir, it’s worth dying to be free.” That made father shout, “Free? Free

to do what, Sam? Free to mock your king? To shoot your neighbor? To make a mess of thousands of lives? Where have you been getting these ideas?” ( Collier and Collier 7). The other one is when Tim and Mr. Meeker are coming home from Verplanks Point and father was taken by the so called Patriot cowboys. “In june of that year, 1777, we found out that father was dead. He’d been dead for a month now. It had happened pretty much as we’d guessed it: he’d been sent to a prison ship in New York ( Collier and Collier 164). There was another separation of a family and that was the Sanford family. Jerry Sanford was a ten year old boy that was taken by the british and was put on a prison ship. He got really sick and died. The british didn’t return the body to the family they just threw him in the ocean.
Another thing that happened in the war was that there was clashes of generations. Clash of generations is when two people from different ages argue about something. Usually the older person is right but that's not always the situation. Sam wanted to join the war but father doesn’t want him to. Father told him that war is not worth it. Sam wants freedom from the British but his family are loyalist. “Father finally lost his temper and slammed his hand down on the table, making the plates jump. “I will not have treason spoken in my house, Sam.” Father that isn’t treas- ( Collier and Collier 6). Another clash was Sam and Mr. Beach. Sam was telling a story about the war and this is how Mr. Beach responded. “Mr. Beach shook his head. “ I think men of common sense will prevail. Nobody wants rebellion except fools and hotheads.” ( Collier and Collier 6). The last one is the Yale students. Most of the Yale students took off, got weapons and joined the war. That also includes Sam.
The last thing that happened in the war and book was principle versus reality.

Principle versus reality is what someone wants but doesn’t get it. One example is Sam wanting freedom. He fought in the war for three years and never experienced victory or defeat because the reality is that you will die eventually. “He hit the ground on his belly and flopped over on his back. He wasn’t dead yet. He laid there shaking and thrashing about, his knees shaking up and down with flames on his shirt until another soldier came up and shot him again. Then he stopped jerking ( Collier and Collier 208). This next is about sam leaving home for war, and the reality for that is that all kids get older and don’t want to live with their parents. When he left tim had to do everything sam would do. The tavern would fall back a couple of times but they catch up. When father gets taken away they really need sam back. He doesn’t want to come back because he likes the excitement of war. “But this time I knew he was wrong. He was staying in the army because he wanted to stay in the army, not because of duty or anything else. He liked the excitement of it ( Collier and Collier 162). These are other examples in the book. Jerry Sanford, Ned, Mr. Meeker, and sam all died in this book. Expectations of death would be natural causes but the reality is you don’t know how you'll

die.
In this book by Collier and Collier they bring up both sides of the war, but you can argue that war is futile. Wars a long time impacted life right now. Without it would be way different. In this book division of family happened a lot but clashes of generations and principles versus reality happened to. Everyone would wonder how life would been without war.