My Brother Sam Is Dead Analysis

Most people think of war as something great which brings freedom, but most people haven’t actually experienced war. They have not seen the brutal killings. They have not seen the destruction and killings of lives and families. In My Brother Sam is Dead, by brothers Collier and Collier, these horrors are clearly shown throughout the story. It tells the other side of the Revolutionary War that is not usually told. The novel teaches how war causes conflicts and division of families, the unnecessary brutal killings, and questions principles versus the reality of war. In My Brother Sam is Dead, although both sides of the war are shown, Collier and Collier ultimately argue that war is futile.
One way the authors argue against war is the conflicts

and the division of families. Sam is a Patriot and his father, Mr. Meeker, is a Redcoat. Redcoats and Patriots were rivals in the Revolutionary War. Sam and Mr. Meeker had many arguments supporting their side. “We have beaten the British in Massachusetts,” Sam shouted. “Who has beaten the British?” Father said. Sam shut the door. “We have,” Sam stated (Collier and Collier 2). This is one of the arguments that Sam and Father have. Sam argues with Father which makes division in their family. Basically, Sam and Father don’t have a good relationship which rips them apart. Mr. Meeker also separates with Tim. Tim was always in between a Torie and a Rebel. He didn’t want to be a redcoat but he also didn’t want to be a patriot. Tim witnesses a killing from a Redcoat. Ned’s killing. He then starts supporting the patriots. Tim says, “ I turned and ran down the road toward Dr. Hobart’s. I didn’t feel much like being a Tory anymore.”(Collier and Collier 145) Now that he supports Patriots, his father and him are different and become separate. Mother also feels divided from the family. “ I just want this war over with.” Mother says(Collier and Collier 133). Mrs. Meeker wants the war over with because she doesn’t like Sam and Father fighting and destroying their family. Division of families ruined lives and brought brutal killings.
Not only conflicts and division of families are occurring but also brutal killings are happening too.

The worst of the killings are the ones that happen to innocent people. For example, a little boy named Jerry Sanford is captured with Mr. Rogers and Captain Betts and taken on a British ship. Jerry was only ten years old and didn’t know what the war was about. He was only a Patriot because of his father. Betsy Read states, “ You can understand why they took Mr. Rogers or Captain Betts but why imprison a ten year old boy?” Ned was an African American slave. One day Ned came running to report that the British were coming. Soon later, the British stormed into Ned’s Master’s house and started shooting. Tim saw something horrible. Ned’s head had been sliced strait off his body. “The sword flashed in a bright arc, the fastest thing I ever saw move. Ned’s head jumped off his body and popped into the air.” Father had been captured by cowboys. Father was a British and the cowboys were Patriots. The cowboys took him to a Patriot ship. He then got transferred to a British ship. Here, Father died of an illness that was being spread throughout the whole ship. How ironic, Father died by his own kind. “ Later we found out that father died. He’d been dead for a month.” Brutal killings brought great struggles and principles versus

reality.
A final way the authors prove war is not worth it is the principles versus the reality of the war. The Patriots fought for the principle of the thing but in reality it would bite them in the back. In the story, Sam represented the Patriots and Father represented the Tories. Sam fights for freedom as Father fights for the King. Also, Father knows war, but Sam knows principles. Father says to Sam,” You may know principles, but I know war.” Father backs up his point by saying,” Have you ever seen a dear friend lying in the grass with the top of his skull off and his brains sliding out of them like wet oats. Have you ever looked into the eyes of a man with his throat cut and the blood pouring out between his fingers, knowing that there was nothing he could do, in five minutes he would be dead, yet still trying to beg for grace and not being able because his windpipe was cut in two?” Father had obviously see war at its worst. Sam’s death was also very dramatic. “ It’s just not fair he fought for three years and they are going to shoot him for doing nothing.” Tim says. Sam joined the army and stayed in it for three years. He is at home one day with Tim when he’s supposed to be on duty. They hear a cow whining and Sam runs out to see what happened. Tim runs behind a little. He sees that Sam is gone and four cattle are missing. Suddenly, three silhouettes appear. Sam says,” They are turning me in for a cattle thief.” Later they find out that two Patriots took the cattle, captured him, and framed him for a cattle theft. General Putman, the general of the Patriots in the area, decides to make an example of him. He orders for him to be shot and killed. The principle is to make an example of him, but the reality is, will it really work or is he just taking a life away from an innocent person? Tim ponders,” But somehow, fifty years later, I keep thinking that there might have been another way, beside war, to achieve the same end.” After the war Tim says this. His mom and him survived the war with losing two family members, Tim’s father and Tim’s brother Sam. They are free now, yet he leaves us with the question could there have been another way. Tim and his mother live happy and successful lives, but still have a hole in their lives with only having two of their four family members. They won the war and gained freedom, but could there have been another way. That is the principle versus reality.
After people have actually experienced war, it could change their perspective. It may not seem as great and glorious as the movies show it. It might not be the fun shooting and killing played on video games. It might not occur that those people on the news could have been family members. The authors decide that the war is incapable of producing a result because people have their own opinions. One person might think it is worth the killings, separation, and principles versus reality and another person might think it is not at all. Collier and Collier did a very interesting job by showing the war through Tim’s eyes that would not normally be shown. In the end, just maybe the Revolutionary War was not worth it.