Character Analysis: My Brother Sam Is Dead

War. Some consider it as a necessary evil, something that we need but don’t want. Others think of war as horrendous violence and death that is unnecessary. On one hand, war has the ability to erase injustice, end tyranny, and bring freedom and liberty to people’s lives. On the other hand, war is a brutal, violent, and tragic tool, and there is always a different way to settle conflicts, such as negotiation. The novel My Brother Sam is Dead, written by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, displays the effects of war, the injustices, brutalities, and ironies, the main character, Tim, witnesses throughout the novel. It is these injustices, the deaths of Ned, Life, and Sam, that leads him to become neutral.
Ned’s death influences Tim to choose neutrality. Ned was a slave that believed in the Patriot cause. One day, when the British army came through Redding, Ned was beheaded during an intense battle: “He slid his sword into Ned’s stomach...the sword flashed in a bright arc...Ned’s head jumped off his body and popped into the air”(144-145). His death shows major injustice because the British could’ve just arrested him, but instead they decided to kill him just because he was African American. Also, …show more content…
Sam was executed because he was “‘arrested as a cattle thief’” even though it was “‘all a mistake...he didn’t do it, he was chasing the ones who did’”(182). Sam’s death is an example of major injustice because he was arrested and killed for something he didn’t do. Also, General Putnam didn’t really care about if he was innocent or not, for he needed to kill somebody to discipline his soldiers, who did not follow orders and constantly broke the rules. The irony in his death is that like his father, he was killed by his own side. Tim sees his brother, his idol, die for something he did not do. He finally learns that war is unfair to everyone, that no side is right, making him ultimately choose