Essay Analysis of My Brother Sam Is Dead

The novel, My Brother Sam is Dead, written by Christopher Collier and James Collier in 1974 is a historical-fiction, based off the American Revolution. It features the Meeker family, a Loyalist family that is caught in the war between the Americans and the British, and how they change as a family. Specifically, the youngest child of the Meeker family, Tim Meeker, the main protagonist and one of the last two surviving members of the family at the end of the narrative. Tim Meeker’s role in the Colliers’ My Brother Sam is Dead is to help express the reoccurring theme of the story that people can change under dire situations.

Chapter 3 in My Brother Sam is Dead illustrates how war doesn’t necessarily affects everyone, even if you can get news of a battle before nightfall and it happened at noon. In the beginning, Tim talks of how the war is not really affecting the people of Redding. Betsy Read comes by the tavern. Betsy and Tim talk in secret behind the tavern. Betsy makes Tim swear to not tell anyone if Sam were to come back to Redding. As predicted, Sam is coming back to Redding. Betsy doesn’t know when Sam is coming back. Tim doesn’t receive word of Sam’s return for about two months. Betsy gives Tim a signal that Sam is back in October.

Kish, Ivan Per. 7 The Theme of My Brother Sam is Dead Figurative language in texts is often seen as something to make the read more interesting and people seem to overlook that it actually can reveal the hidden themes that lie within the text. In the historical fiction text, My Brother Sam is Dead a teenager named Sam leaves to fight against the british while his family is on the side of the British and one of the themes that the text presents us with is that war is often times extremely undesirable.

My Brother Sam is Dead The intense and action packed book My Brother Sam is Dead is written by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. The book takes place in the times of the American Revolution. It follows a boy and his family as they go through extremely difficult times, as Tim, the boy, brother is in the war fighting for the Colonist, and Tim’s family are Tories. For Tim and his family the war affects them in many ways.

The ship was cold and food was scarce. It was no condition for a little ten year old boy. He was a prisoner of the war with little hope. Snatched out of his life he was helpless and was destined to die while others lived. He asked to himself, “Why me? Why not someone else?” His death actually happened in history, but also in the novel, My Brother Sam Is Dead. It is the year 1775, the Revolutionary War is just stirring among the people and around the life of the narrator, Tim Meeker. Tim is the youngest son in a family that runs a tavern in the town of Redding. The Meeker family goes through many sufferings at the cost of war. His older brother, Sam is a Yale student who goes to war to fight the British against his father’s wishes.

Edwidge Danticat uses her memoir to show how powerful a voice is to have, how it makes a difference in not only your life, but the ones without a voice, the ones who cannot speak for themselves. In the book, Brother, I’m Dying, written by Edwidge Danticat, which tells us how her younger life growing up in Haiti with her uncle, affects her after she moves to the US to be with her parents at the age of 10 years old, this drastically changes the relationships she has with her uncle and father, creating a new family dynamic. The suggestion of voice is shown in many ways, while her reasoning is constant, Danticat faced many situations in her life that have shaped her beliefs and formed her opinions on individual standings. Danticat’s memoir

Distance and separation is a key theme in the memoir, “Brother, I’m Dying,” by Edwidge Danticat. In her book, Danticat writes about how she was separated from her father, Mira, who went to live in the United States when she was two years old and she was then separated from her mother two years later. After ten years of being under her uncle’s care, Edwidge and Bob were then sent to live with their parents after they had been approved for their citizenship, but Edwidge shows that she feels unsure about moving with people who felt more like strangers than parents. Once she left for New York, you can see that, although she is returning to her father, she is now being separated from someone who she loved- her uncle, Mira. Throughout the book, you

After a few years of going to church with his family fervently on Sundays, fourteen year old Sam lost his father, which later on would describe as “Only one for passion, a military life” .

The movies describes a major theme of “The Departed” as one of the oldest in drama—the concept of identity—and how it "affects one's actions, emotions, self-assurance, and even dreams.” Many years later, an older Sullivan, now in his mid twenties, (Matt Damon) is finishing his training for the Massachusetts State Police with classmates, including fellow cadet Barrigan (James Badge Dale). In another class are Cadet Brown (Anthony Anderson) and Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio). All four men graduate to become state troopers. Sullivan is a sergeant, and has just passed the state trooper detective test. He goes in to meet with the calm and collected Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen), and the aggressive and

In the reading “Some Lines for a Younger Brother”, the writer brought back her memories of what she remembered from her younger brother. Sue started with the details of when her youngest brother was born. She proceded to talk about how it impacted her family and brother when her father passed away in a car accident. Her family had to move to the Manzanar Relocation Center. When the writer started talking about moving to the relocation center she started bringing in more details, this was also a main point and very big part of the reading.

Four Brothers depicts a family of four adopted brothers that come to avenge their mother’s death in Detroit in what initially appears to be a random killing in a grocery store robbery. As a backdrop, the four brothers, Bobby, Jeremiah, Jack, and Angel, did not have a family support system, were left to fend for themselves, and were constantly involved in criminal activities. As a result of them not being accepted into any foster care outreach programs, Evelyn Mercer, a lady who had sincere intentions, took all four of them into her own home and adopted them. She became their mother. The brothers suspected their mother’s killing was not a random act and decided to take matters into their own hands. The boys’ investigation of the death reveals more reprehensible activities involving the one brother’s business dealing with a notorious local criminal and the acts of a corrupted cop. The negative social labels that the Mercer brothers experience are passed on from public officials to the citizens of the community. This labeling becomes the nemesis of the Mercer brothers.

For Instance, Mr. Heron apostatized the Patriots to the Loyalists, and, as a result, Jerry is taken onto a British Prison ship. Betsy states, “‘ They sunk his body in Long Island Sound in a weighted sack”’(166). Tim expected that they would relinquish Jerry because he is ten years old. Tim thought that they would relinquish Jerry because he had no erudition of the war. In lieu of keeping the men, they kept Jerry and threw him in the ocean, making his family suffer because they could not bury him.

Tim had to get everything home safely and was forced to take over all of his father's duties. By this time many soldiers had come through Redding and killed many people, mostly friends. It was very hard for Tim and his mother to keep the tavern and chores up by themselves. Sam ended up being wintered in a town close to Redding and his mother begged him to come home but he insisted on staying in the military and fighting for freedom.

Fear is inevitably tied to the common saying “I am watching you”. When one’s actions are constantly monitored and privacy being relentlessly invaded, the individual soon will possess a sort of fear. In the novel Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, the government uses surveillance as a tool for exploiting the privacy of the people which then engages their fear.

Published first during the decade of the 1990s "The Boy Died in My Alley" remains a significant poem of Gwendolyn Brooks as she moves from traditional forms of poetry such as sonnets, ballads to the most unrestrictive free verse and includes the sad rhythm of the blues. This poem offers an amazing juxtaposition of dramatic poetic forms, narrative, and lyric (Guth & Rico). The story is most often simple but with the last line, they transcend the restriction of place and cover universal plight. Most often the characters of the people are memorable only due to fact that they are trying to survive the trials and tribulations of daily living. For example, in the poem, “The Boy Died in My Alley”, the author narrates an incident when a black boy is murdered in her back alley and the policeman asks her whether she has heard the shot. As she was passionate about the bad experiences of black community in the United States, her poetry is mainly about their plight in the society (Guth & Rico). The main focus of the poem, "The Boy Died in My Alley" is to study and analyze the reasons behind the violence that is associated with African-American children who live on the street.