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Critically reflective essay example
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“You can’t be happy unless you’re free.” This simple, barely basic quote says it all- if people can not do as they please, how can they really be happy? The novel, My Brother Sam is Dead, focuses on the subject of war and how it changes the lives of the regular people. Both authors do a great job of seeing the wrongness done on both sides and the need for war when the people are fighting for their freedom. Throughout the story, the authors come convincing conclusion that while war is never the best option, sometimes war is the only option in order to get what’s right. One of the themes in the novel is the subject of clashing ideals. The main character of the novel, Tim, lives in a divided family who each has their own opinion on the war– the …show more content…
In the story, the arguments mostly go between Sam and his father, Mr. Meeker. Both have different veiws from their own expirence and what the main ideals from their generation were. However, times have changed since Mr. Meeker was a young man, and what was right at his time isn’t nessesairly right anymore. Britian doesn’t treat the colonies how they did back in Mr. Meeker’s days. “‘You get the wrong idea from Redding, sir. There’s a lot more Tories in this part of Connecticut than in the rest of teh colonies. In New Haven there aren’t so many Loyalists and in some towns there aren’t any at all.’” (Collier and Collier 6). Sam tells this to Mr. Beach and his father when they say that not that many people want to fight. They may know a lot, but they don’t get around as much as Sam does. Being old may make someone wise, but that’s by reminesing, not by knowing everything. Mr. Meeker is headstrong, like Sam, but in a bad way by being stubborn. He can’t except that he isn’t always right. It’s a different time than when he grew up, and he doesn’t know everything he thinks he does anymore. “‘A man? You’re a boy, Sam, a boy dressed up in a gaudy soldier’s suit.’” Father yells at Sam (Collier and Collier 22). Just because Father’s older doesn’t mean he knows everything. Sam tries to tell it like it is, but Father won’t believe it because he’s older and the man of the house. “‘He said Sam was …show more content…
James and Christopher Collier made Sam how he is for a reason– not only to portray what it meant to be a soldier but the whole American troops in general. As a reader in the eyes of Tim, Sam’s little brother, we get to explore most of his sides, including his faults and triumphs. “‘The boy has to learn a lesson, he’s far too headstrong.’” (Collier and Collier 87), Mr. Meeker points out at a point in the story. While Sam may be headstrong, a better word for him would be determined. Since the beginning, Sam has always strived to get what he wants and would even go as far as to declare an ultimatum. Sam shows that the American troops were serious about what they were doing in the way he acts about going to war. He even goes as far as to steal the Brown Bess while his family is at church in order to help out what he really believes. “Sam was a triumphant person. He always had some victories to tell whenever he came home from college.” (Collier and Collier 11) . This quote shows two main things about Sam– for one, he’s smart. Unlike most people that age, Sam is going to college and quickly learning important politcial information there. He was able to see the bad injustices that were able to convice him to become a Patriot. You also can see Sam likes to win– he would not just join a side so he could could lose. The story goes on to say he was good at debates and always scored ‘telling
Chapter 10-14 in My Brother Sam is Dead describes the war’s savage nature and the hardships the Meeker family endures due to the wicked acts of man-kind. In chapter 10, Tim describes the woes of life without Father. Not long after British troops come to Redding. Consequently, a bloodbath between the painfully small Rebel militia and British troops. In chapter 11, the Continentals Army comes to Redding. Afterwards, Tim finds Sam with his regiment. Tim, Sam, and Mother visit and Sam refuses to come home after his enlistment is done. In chapter 12, the Meekers find out Father died on a British prison ship. The Continental Army sets up camp in Redding for the winter. A few months later, Sam is taken in for being a cattle thief after being framed
“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.
The novel “My Brother Sam is Dead” is a story told through a boy named Tim meeker and how he admires his brother Sam meeker. But throughout the story Sam and his father argue about how they feel about each other’s differences and about separating from England. Meanwhile Tim finds himself very confused as to which side he should part take into. The story takes place in the 1700’s during the revolutionary war. Tim and his family go through many hardships in this novel.
Sam R. Watkins was a Confederate soldier from Columbia, Tennessee. At age twenty-one, Watkins joined the First Tennessee Regiment along with one hundred and nineteen other young men and boys. He was one of only seven men to survive every one of its battles. He writes a memoir twenty years after being in the war about his experience as a private. Watkins juxtaposes stories of horror and gruesome death with humorous memories throughout his four years in the war.
In the novel, My Brother Sam is Dead, by James and Christopher Collier, they teach that there are many other ways to solve conflict besides war. War is violent, disgusting, and gruesome and so many people die in war. Families separate in war because of how many people want to be in the thrill of the war and also how many innocent family members die in the midst of war. Lastly, war is worthless and it was caused by a disagreement over something little and the outcome of war is not worth the many lives, time, and money and there are other ways to solve conflict besides to fight. War causes so many negative outcomes on this world that it needs to be avoided at all costs.
The book ‘For Cause and Comrades’ is a journey to comprehend why the soldiers in the Civil War fought, why they fought so passionately, and why they fought for the long period of time. Men were pulling guns against other men who they had known their whole lives. McPherson’s main source of evidence was the many letters from the soldiers writing to home. One of the many significant influences was how the men fought to prove their masculinity and courage. To fight would prove they were a man to their community and country. Fighting also had to do with a duty to their family. Ideology was also a major motivating factor; each side thought they were fighting for their liberty. The soldier’s reputations were created and demolished on the battlefield, where men who showed the most courage were the most honored. Religion also played an important role because the second Great Awakening had just occurred. Their religion caused the men who thought of themselves as saved to be fearless of death, “Religion was the only thing that kept this soldier going; even in the trenches…” (McPherson, p. 76) R...
about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes
Learning your brother has passed is sad but watching him be murdered is the most traumatic thing a young boy could be put through. Sam had been accused of cattle theft, but it was his own cattle. Tim tried to explain to general Putnam but he refused to listen saying that the execution would show soldiers that they will be punished for their actions and might save civilians lives. They went on with the execution and “shot him so close that his clothes were on fire.he went on jerking with flames on his chest until another soldier shot him again.then he stopped jerking”(208). The patriots killed on of their own to save others. Sam did not do anything and was totally innocent but he did not have enough telling points to prove that he was. It was unfair that instead of somebody that actually committed a crime was not executed as an example. Tim would not want to choose a side where he was not protected by his own people. Being neutral was the best choice for Tim since he was against war overall and did not want to support either
Jones, Peter G, War and the Novelist: Appraising the American war Novel. University of Missouri Press, 1976. 5-6. Rpt. in Literary Themes for Students, War and Peace. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 449-450. Print.
2) What is the main conflict in the book? Is it external or internal? How is this conflict resolved throughout the course of the book?
In the book, Shattered, the book is about a teen who begins to mature as he ages. The main character is starting to become more mature after he gets a placement at a soup kitchen. He starts to realise that there are many problems going on in the society. There are many types of conflicts that are going on around him. The four types of conflicts going on in the book are Human vs. Society, Human vs. Self, Human vs. Human and Human vs. Self. The one conflict that is really making this story apparent is Human vs. Society due to the Rwandan genocide. The Human vs. Self, Human vs. Human, Human vs. Self are the other conflicts that are making this story interesting after the Human vs. Society conflict.
When the war breaks out, this tranquil little town seems like the last place on earth that could produce a team of vicious, violent soldiers. Soon we see Jim thrown into a completely contrasting `world', full of violence and fighting, and the strong dissimilarity between his hometown and this new war-stricken country is emphasised. The fact that the original setting is so diversely opposite to that if the war setting, the harsh reality of the horror of war is demonstrated.
Not all soldiers had a definite answer of why they fought, but it was definitely an open-ended question. In order to find a realistic answer to the question, McPherson gathered physical emotions from personal letters and diaries from soldiers during their war experience (1). The two sides, Confederate and Union, both had their reasons for going into war voluntarily and forcefully. He wanted to know what motivated volunteer soldiers to
Nothing in life is guaranteed, but the one thing that humans demand is freedom. Throughout history, there are countless cases where groups of people fought for their freedom. They fought their battles in strongly heated debates, protests, and at its worst, war. Under the assumption that the oppressors live in complete power, the oppressed continuously try to escape from their oppressors in order to claim what is rightfully theirs: the freedom of choice. In Emily Dickinson’s poems #280, #435, and #732 and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, freedom is represented by an individual’s ability to make their own decisions without the guidance, consultation, or outside opinion of others in order to find their true sense of self. Once an individual is physically and spiritually free, they can find their true sense of self.
The Struggles in life is something everyone is faced with whether it is physical, emotional mental or personal struggles. These struggles are capable of shaping an individual’s personality and outlook on life. Timothy Findley’s novel The Wars, shows that struggles lead to the character’s ultimate inner struggles, outer struggles and self-discovery. War exists in a person’s physical and psychological aspects. In The Wars, Robert Ross goes to war and fights a personal and physical battle.