Pros And Cons Of My Brother Sam Is Dead

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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 …show more content…

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

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