Character Analysis: My Brother Sam Is Dead

Published in 1974, the novel My Brother Sam is Dead conveys a valuable message that pertains to families and children living in a country midst of war. The authors of this novel allude to events that occurred and people who were present during the American revolutionary war against the British. The events shown in this novel are seen through the eyes of Tim Meeker, the protagonist of the story. By introducing Tim as a dynamic character, and using literary elements like setting, mood, and conflict to develop his traits, James and Christopher Collier support the theme in My Brother Sam is Dead, adversity changes people and forces them to reside new traits and characteristics. Consequently, they make sure to inform the readers about how Tim’s …show more content…
The atmospheres they instill in different situations reveal Tim’s characteristics. Because the mood changes in different situations, the Colliers establish more than one mood. The most frequent being tense and pessimistic moods. In the beginning of the book, the Colliers continuously set up a tense mood when Tim is present around his family. On page 3, the Colliers included, “…they were all silent and shocked” (Collier, Collier, pg.3). After this scene, the authors showed Tim focusing on Sam’s uniform instead of being involved in the argument. By doing so, the Colliers develop Tim to be a bystander as a result of him not taking part in the quarrel. As the book proceeds and different events occur, the Colliers create a pessimistic mood. One way they show this mood is by making Tim constantly anxious about the cowboys attacking him. Moreover, the Colliers use tragic events to create a pessimistic atmosphere. By doing so, they exhibit that Tim is a person who usually predicts something bad is bound to happen. Thus, Tim is a gloomy character. In addition to mood, the Colliers broaden Tim’s traits by using figurative language. To further develop Tim’s trait of being a gloomy person, the Colliers also use symbolism. Whenever Tim brings up cows or talks about them, something bad happens. He talks about them in a way where a pessimistic atmosphere is created. Therefore, the use of …show more content…
James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, the authors of the novel develop the theme, adversity changes people and forces them to reside new traits and characteristics by using many different literary elements. They use setting, scene, mood, figurative language and conflict to reveal traits of Timothy Meeker, which helps establish the theme throughout the