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Character development introduction
Character development introduction
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In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by Collier and Collier, Tim the youngest brother matures through the story. In the beginning of the book, Tim’s older brother Sam is supposed to be at graduate school, Yale. But instead he decides to join the military, not only does he want to join but he wants to join to opposing side. Towards the middle of the book the author explains how the Meeker Family is starting to break apart/divide. Part of the book the reader soon noticed the Clash of generations that is starting to form. At the end of the novel, freedom finally starts to show and explain to the reader what the Principles vs. reality is. Tim starts to realize at the end of the novel that war is not worth dying for. "There are principles involved,
“My Brother Sam is dead” is a historical fiction book written by two men named James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. This book is placed in Redding, Connecticut, during April is where the book started and was placed. Tim Meeker is the main character who has a brother Sam that left to war to fight for the patriots, but his family members are “Tories” who disagree with Sam’s decisions.
Many would assume that this would be a very peaceful and joyous reunion for Price and his family, however, several new struggles ensue for him instead. This is due to him becoming so accustomed to spending his life in the war that he can no longer comprehend what purpose and identity he holds removed from it. Given the severe monotony he was subjected to during the war, Price has now become just as prompt in making decisions at home as on the battlefield by no longer taking the time to “think” before acting. In fact, Price’s own dog named Vicar serves as a symbol to represent Price’s “civilian” mindset, which repeatedly conflicts with his “war” mindset until it is no longer bearable. Therefore, Price is forced to kill Vicar as he can no longer manage his conflicting mindsets. The parallels drawn between the stories of Price and Vicar and Cross and Martha serve to suggest that even though one details the struggles of a soldier in the war, while the other elaborates on a soldier’s struggle removed from it, they both share the same consequence of having to put away their humanity in order to settle the dispute between conserving their identities as civilians, and remaining obligated to their duties in
Wes (the author) has a family who wants to see him succeed. Although Wes didn’t know his father for long, the two memories he had of him and the endless stories his mother would share with him, helped guide him through the right path. His mother, made one of the biggest effects in Wes’s life when she decided to send him to military story, after seeing he was going down the wrong path. Perhaps, the other Wes’s mother tried her best to make sure he grew up to be a good person, but unfortunately Wes never listen. His brother, Tony was a drug dealer who wish he could go back in time and make the right decisions and he wanted Wes to be different than him. He didn’t want his brother to end up like him and even after he tried everything to keep Wes away from drugs, nothing worked and he gave up. As you can see, both families are very different, Wes (the author) has a family who wants him to have a bright future. Most importantly, a family who responds fast because right after his mother saw him falling down the wrong hill she didn’t hesitate to do something about it. The other Wes isn’t as lucky, as I believe since his mother already had so much pressure over keeping her job and her son Tony being involved in drugs. Same thing with Tony, he was so caught up in his own business that no one payed so much attention to
to deteriorate the human spirit. Starting out leaving you're home and family and ready to fight for you country, to ending up tired and scarred both physically and mentally beyond description. At the beginning of the novel nationalist feelings are present through pride of Paul and the rest of the boys. However at the end of the war it is apparent how pointless war really is.
After their first two days of fighting, they return to their bunker, where they find neither safety nor comfort. A grizzled veteran, Kat, suggests these ‘fresh-faced boys’ should return to the classroom. The war steals their spiritual belief in the sanctity of human life with every man that they kill. This is best illustrated by Paul’s journey from anguish to rationalization of the killing of Gerard Duval; the printer turned enemy who leaps into the shell-hole already occupied by Paul. Paul struggles with the concept of killing a “brother”, not the enemy. He weeps despondently as war destroys his emotional being.
Thinking that the war was just an ideal character. Convincing the reader to believe the boys didn't know the risk they were taking by being in this war. They way the boys viewed it, shows that, true their are some hard times in wars, but their minds are young and they thought it was just another thing to talk about. When they should have been taking things more serious, but thinking about the good parts helped them to keep a hold on their sanity. "They ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress to the future", was the beliefs of the boys after their friend Behn dies. Their generation thought that the authorities were going to look after, and take care of them, the authorities were thought of real highly by them. Until their friend passed away, then everything changed. "We had to realize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs", this is where they came to reality that, everybody was taking care of their selves, and didn't want anything to do with other peoples problems.
“The cowboys had lain in ambush in the hemlock groves, jumped Father, and taken him away someplace,” which was quoted by Tim Meeker in chapter ten. (Collier and Collier 161) This shows how useless it was to kidnap an innocent man for no reason. “In June 1777, we found out that Father and Jerry Stratford were dead. It had happened as we thought: they'd been sold to prison ship in New York. There was one funny thing- it wasn’t even a Rebel prison ship, it was a British.”(Collier and Collier 183) After the cowboys captured Mr. Meeker they sold him to a British prison ship where he ended up dying. “Those soldiers caught Sam with the your stolen cattle, and the soldiers will probably decide to hang him,” said Colonel Read. (Collier and Collier 196)This shows that the real cattle thieves are willing to lie so that Sam has to die for no reason. All Sam did was try and get his family's stolen cattle back. “Sam slammed backwards as if he had been knocked over. I never really heard the guns roar. He hit the ground on his belly and then flopped over on his back. He was shaking and thrashing, they had shot him so close that his clothes were on fire. He kept jerking and then another soldier shot him, then he stopped jerking.” (Collier and Collier 206) This was said by Tim in the last chapter of the book where his brother is shot for no reason due to
Wars have not helped; all they do is make it worse.The novel My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier.The book is about on how the Meeker family changes over time since the war.Family’s got torn apart mostly from the American Revolution war.There were also Clash of generations and They got torn apart because in the past the kid would want to be a patriot and the adults would not want war so they stayed loyal to the king.Now the reader will read about on how the Meeker family changes since the war.
Throughout The Wars, the main character is involved in many decisions, most of which fit under three main ideas or categories of justification: moral/general good, self-interest, and safety. Timothy Findley indirectly asks the readers of his novel to take these ideas into our own lives, and apply them to the decisions we make as a person or as a society. These decisions may be as simple as what type of bread we buy in the morning to more significant, such as who we vote for on Election Day. For any action we take there is always some type of justification or reason for doing what we are doing. It occurs today as it has occurred in centuries before. And surely, as we look into the future, the decisions will remain, only the justifications will differ, based on information we believe or know to be true.
The theme of this war story is very much applicable in real life as it was in the story. These three characters in the this story realize the hard way how warfare and violence can shape a person’s perspective on life. Each character experience death first hand through the deaths of their comrades and realize how important that life is. This is what Tim O’Brien’s character realizes from his experience during Vietnam that you cannot control the things that happen, like being drafted to a war you do not support, but you just have to go as life takes you and make the most out of the situation as much as you can. “And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight. it’s about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things ou are afraid to do. it’s about love and memory. It’s about
War is an inevitable struggle that humanity constantly faces. It is best described by the words of Bertrand Russell, an English philosopher; “War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” There are many consequences of war, such as economic, developmental and security: however an important one is humanitarian, more specifically, the psychological effect that war and violence impacts on the population. In most literature, the protagonist in a war event is often depicted as an older individual, one who is in their adult years, and their journey through the event. Nevertheless in Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief both of the protagonists are both considerably younger than
Tommy and Sam’s dad, Hank, played a larger role in this movie than expected; his ideologies shaped both his sons on what they can do with their lives. Hank was always pushing the army as a way to be a man and pay back your country, and because Tommy didn’t adhere to this ideology, he became the scapegoat son. Hank’s pressure to be manly is what stopped Sam from getting any help for his PTSD, as his dad doesn’t want Sam in counselling or on medication because “Real men don’t need help” (Jim Sheridan,
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
Tim O’Brien is drafted one month after graduating from Macalester College to fight a war he hated. Tim O’Brien believed he was above the war, and as a result pursued the alternative of escaping across the border to Canada. This understandable act is what Tim O’Brien considers an embarrassment to himself, and to others. When Tim O’Brien finds accommodation on the border to Canada, he meets Elroy Berdahl who eventually influences Tim O’Brien, to change. Elroy Berdahl acts as a mentor to Tim, a figure that remains detached in the sense that he must provide enough support and understanding without being attached to the results.
In addition to overcoming each of their personal dilemmas and fears they also had to try and not allow the war to change who they were as a person. Even though Tim narrates the story he was unable to do this very feat himself. He admits that the months of enduring the harsh conditions of the Vietnamese jungle changed him by making him mean and empty on the inside. This is a common problem that every soldier had to face during the war.This is due to the fact that the soldiers had to swallow their morals on a daily basis ,just to survive the cruel reality of war. Without doing so they would fall vi...