My Brother Sam is Dead Explanatory Essay
Layla Worthington
Tim Meeker a curious boy is unsure about if he is on his father’s side or brother’s side about the war. When Tim Meeker’s brother Sam returns home from college in the spring of 1775 he announces that he has decided to enlist in the Rebel army, his parents are upset, but his younger brother, Tim, is wide-eyed with curiosity. When the brothers are outside together doing chores around their family's tavern, Sam confides in Tim his plan to steal their father's gun in order to fight in the army. Tim protests, but he can do nothing to stop Sam. That night, Mr. Meeker and Sam have an argument about the war and Sam runs away from home. The next morning after church, Tim visits Sam in a hut where he is hiding out. He tries to talk Sam out of going to war, but without success. In the hut, Sam's girlfriend Betsy Read asks Tim which side he supports, and Tim has trouble deciding between his Father's loyalty to the British government and his brother's loyalty to the idea of an independent nation. Betsy Read is up and down about the war, weather she is a rebel or tory. He does not answer. Tim doesn’t want to betray his father or his brother. Sam leaves, and after several months Betsy lets Tim that Sam has returned home from war. Tim finds an excuse to visit his brother when Rebel soldiers enter his house and violently demand his father's gun, which is with Sam. Tim runs to Sam's hideout, steals the gun and runs, but is soon over taken by Sam. Together they return to the house and find that their parents have been spared. In this first few chapters Tim learns that there is a different side to every argument. Tim states there were 6 sides to the argument about the king and people’s loyalty to the king. Tim isn’t sure what he believes in.
Tim spends the summer around the tavern and then he goes on a trading journey with his father to Verplancks Point, his first trip away from home and his first encounter with his...