Pros And Cons Of My Brother Sam Is Dead

The Pros and Cons of War

The Revolutionary War was a dreadful war that lasted just over eight years between the British and its 13 colonies. War in general has some good and bad parts to it. Most of these ups and downs of war happen in the book My Brother Sam Is Dead. Some good parts about war is gaining freedom and rights from another country, taking the opponent to justice, and defeating an evil dictator that is overpowered. On the other hand, there are a few bad parts about wars. War can get a loved one killed, it is expensive, and it is just brutal in general. In the story My Brother Sam Is Dead, Collier ultimately agrees that war is gruesome, unfair and splits families.

At times war can become very gruesome in a lot of different

ways. In My Brother Sam Is Dead, a patriot messenger wanders into Redding on his horse where the British troops were waiting for him. Before he realizes they were there and tries to turn around, he gets shot, flings his arms out, falls off his horse, and is sprawled onto the ground. “His head jerked backwards, and he slid off the back of the horse and lay still there in the dusty road” Tim explains (Collier & Collier 141) Shortly thereafter, Tim goes to retrieve Dr. Hobart to help the wounded patriot messenger when he sees a shooting between some rebels in a house and some Tories outside of it. Eventually the Tories get into the house, and they decapitate Ned, Samuel Smith’s negro slave. “Ned’s head jumped off his body and popped into the air. I never saw it fall. I dropped down behind the stone wall and vomited all over myself” Tim said (Collier & Collier 145). Towards the end of the book, another gruesome event in the war happens. After disappearing, Mr. Meeker is said to have been taken onto a British prison ship and dies of a sickness on board it. “That’s what happened to Father: they’d had and epidemic of cholera on the prison ship he had been on” (Collier & Collier 165). The gruesomeness and unfairness that happens in the book My Brother Sam Is Dead is a valid representation of what happened in real life during the Revolutionary War.

Another non-positive aspect of war is just the unfairness of it. In My Brother Sam Is Dead ten year old Jerry Sanford gets taken on a British prison ship when the Tories could have taken an important Patriot Colonel or soldier.“Nobody understands it. They put him on a prison ship and he got sick and died in three weeks. It doesn't make any sense. You can understand why they took Mr. Rogers or Captain Betts, but why imprison a ten-year-old boy?” Betsy Read explains to Tim (Collier & Collier 166). An even more unfair event happens at the end of the book where Sam gets in trouble for stealing his own cattle. Colonel Read pleads with General Putnam that Sam was innocent but in the end, Putnam decides Sam should be executed. In the book Tim explains how him and his mother were very nervous about what might happen to Sam. “There was nothing to do now but wait to see what General Putnam decided” (Collier & Collier 199). Before this incident, Rebel troops were marching into Redding to get a meal and set up camp for the night. A few of them, including General Wooster, barged into the tavern demanding a meal. That night Tim didn’t get anything to eat. “You’re the taverner, ma'am?”(Wooster asking Mother) “We’ll need some dinner” (Collier & Collier 152). Even though it was against the law to kick soldiers out of the tavern or house back then, it is still unfair to break into someone’s house and demand a meal. These unfair moments in the book are just like what happened in the Revolutionary War, and they also split families apart.

The last idea of war being bad is how it splits apart families.

On the back cover of the book My Brother Sam Is Dead, the Colliers state “The Revolutionary war was tearing Tim’s family apart” (Collier & Collier back cover). In chapter one of the story, Sam and his Father were arguing about the war, and Father had to hit Sam for speaking out. “Father hardly ever hit me, but he hit Sam dozens of times, mostly for arguing” Tim says (Collier & Collier 8). Later in the book, after Ned gets beheaded in the Starr’s house, Tim reconsidered which side he is actually on in the war. “I didn’t feel much like being a Tory anymore” (Collier & Collier 145). Because of the Meekers picking sides in the war, such as Sam being a Rebel, Mr. Meeker being a Loyalist, and Tim still deciding, it really split the family. Lastly, a very family-splitting event happened in the book when Sam re-enlists in the army just for the excitement of the war, and this makes Mother and Tim angry. “In two months, but I’m going to re-enlist” Sam says (Collier & Collier 161). This affair in the story leads to Sam mistakenly being accused of stealing his own cattle, which leads to his execution. There are lots of phenomenons in this book and in the Revolutionary War that split families

apart.

In the story My Brother Sam Is Dead, Collier ultimately agrees that war is gruesome, unfair and splits families. Although it seemed this essay focused on the Cons of war and not the Pros, there are a few good things about war not mentioned in this essay. In the book, Collier didn’t bring up many positive aspects of war at all, but there aren’t really that many in general. Even though the Revolutionary War seemed like it never had to take place in history, it caused the colonies to break away from Britain and create the United States of America. After all, it looks like there are plenty of positive and negative measures of war.