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My Brother Sam Is Dead Essay

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During the Revolutionary War people were treated horrifically, some lost their homes, and many lost their lives. In the book, My Brother Sam is Dead by Collier and Collier, shows the realism of war. The book about the Revolutionary War explains how war tears families apart, causes a clash of generations, and how the reality of the war wins over the principle. The writers, Collier and Collier, of the book My Brother Sam is Dead shows both sides of the Revolutionary War, but they ultimately agree that the war is barbaric.
One of the many examples that which illustrate that the war is dreadful is the pure fact that it tears families apart. In the text it states, “‘Sam,’ I shouted, ‘You stole fathers Brown Bess.’ He jerked around to look at it. …show more content…

In the book it states on page 22,“‘You can’t order me anymore, Father I’m a man.’ ‘A man? Your a boy, Sam, a boy dressed up in a gaudy soldiers suit.’ Oh he sounded bitter. ‘Father--’ ‘Go, Sam get out of my sight. I can’t bear to look at you anymore in that vile costume. Get out. And don’t come back until you come dressed as my son, not as a stranger.’”(Collier and Collier) The war is tearing the Meeker family apart, Mr. Meeker had just kicked his son out of his house calling him a stranger. The war is making them disagree and thus making them split up. The war has forced people to choose sides. When they do, they disagree to what side is better. A quote that also justifies the claim that war is vicious is on page 71 when it states, “‘Father, why can't I carry messages for Mr. Heron? You're on the Tory side, too.’ ‘Because I said so.’ ‘That's no reason,’ I said. He stared at me. ‘If you don't stop arguing with me, I'll thrash you, Timmy.’ ‘I don't care,’ I said. ‘If we're supposed to be Loyalists, we should help--’ He slammed his fist down on the table and then jerked his thumb toward his chest. ‘I'll manage the politics in this family,’ he said. ‘Father--’ ‘Timothy, goddamn it I'm going to--’”(Collier and Collier) Tim and his father are arguing about Tim delivering a message. If the war could not have occurred and Tim had to deliver a message it would not be a big deal, but because of …show more content…

One example is shown when it states, “‘He's dead,’ Betsy said. ‘Jerry? He's dead?’ ‘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?’”(Pages 166 Collier and Collier) This is just one of many examples of the horrifying deaths of innocent people as a result of the war. There are too many people's lives that are being negatively affected by this war. The principle of “freedom or death” is not even close to comparing of the loss of human life. The fact that innocent children are dying over this war sickens me. Another example from the text is when Mr. Meeker exclaims to Sam, “principle, Sam? You may know principle, Sam, but I know war. 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 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 able to because his windpipe cut in two Have you heard a man shriek when he felt a bayonet go through the middle of his back? I have, Sam, I have… And I carried my friends body in a back to his mother--sewed

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