Back during the Revolutionary War, families were divided and many people were trying to decide one question. Should they join the side of the Patriots, Loyalists, or remain neutral? War can be a brutal, violent, and cruel way of achieving power or freedom; and in the process, many lives are lost. However, sometimes war is necessary as it helps get rid of tyranny and injustice. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, a boy named Tim Meeker lives in a family where his father is a Loyalist, and his dear brother is a Patriot.
Because Billy experience many death in war, he did not emote in describing the awful and horrible nature of war. What this quote mean, is that war has destroyed Billy’s ability to sense emotions. Through Billy’s experience, we can understand that forcing adolescent into war, is basically sending them to die. Because what’s the point of sending innocent adolescent without experience to war, and causing them to come back from war, without being able to sense their own emotion. This is just one in many after effect war has on people.
Sam was a great soldier on the battlefield, you would expect that he would get some telling points, but it didn’t matter. It’s ironic that he was killed even though he showed loyalty throughout the whole adventure. Since Sam was on the Patriot side, he was threatening the splitting of his family. He dedicated so much of his life to the Patriots, that he even went against his father’s wish, which was seen as a sin. Sam deserved more than he had originally
The biggest effect the letter had on Tim was his beliefs. He believed war was wrong, but most thought it was the right thing to do so they could stop the spread of communism .Tim also was scared of dying in war. It was the thing he feared most, He said, “Beyond all this, or at the very center, was the raw fact of terror. I did not want to die (1005).” Tim also thought war was cruel and it should not be an option, but what about what everyone would think of him? He had to go to war because he could never Upset his family and country just like that.
The cruelty of life can change one’s perspective of the world. When people experience difficulties in life, like loss and grief, they sometimes struggle to come to terms with the sadness and the truths of reality. Some may become traumatized and tempted to get a revenge due to the sudden loss in order to cope with the sadness within oneself and sometimes may become stuck. In the anti-war film Platoon written by Oliver Stone, Chris Taylor is a naive adolescent, who volunteers to go to war to fight for his country due to his moral obligation. The death of his mentor named Elias completely ends the remainder of the innocence that Chris once had, but additionally, he has become the reluctant to leave the war at the end of the film.
For example, in the passage The Yellow Birds by Keith Powers, he uses irony when he says “cowardice got you into this mess when you wanted to be a man” (Powers). This is ironic because many people think that someone would be brave for going into war, not cowardice. But they were being a coward for running away and going into war thinking that would make them a man. In the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, he uses irony to protest war when he says “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori” (27-28). This means that it is sweet and right to die for your country.
War is senseless violence and brutality, but also where you can fight for freedom and end injustice. The negatives of war, like senseless brutality are sometimes used for lessons, so men don’t abandon the war. The positives are fighting for your freedom and ending injustice, if your country wins the war you get your freedom and you stop unnecessary deaths. In the book, My Brother Sam is Dead, the Collier brothers show that war has many goods and bads to it. In the book, My Brother Sam is Dead, Tim decides to be neutral, at the end of the novel, due to the ironic death of his best friend Jerry, his father Life, and his brother Sam.
Vonnegut terrible war experience inspires him to write a story on the depth of war. In the novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” Kurt Vonnegut writes a story about an anti war hero named Billy Pilgrim. Kurt Vonnegut uses this protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, to express his belief on war. From beginning to end Vonnegut criticizes war particularly “ the Bombing of Dresden. Vonnegut despises war, he believes that war has no purpose and the idea of glorifying it is nonsense.
This writer is encouraging his people to stop standing around and to fight back. The writer starts off by saying, “If we must die, let it not be like hogs… If we must die let us nobly die” (Source B). He feels as though if dies while being a part of this, he does not want it “to be like hogs.” This exhibits he wants his death to mean something, and that he died for something. He wants his death to be “noble”, or have died with honor for doing what he believes is morally correct. While fighting, “though far outnumbered let us show us brave”(Source B).
The American Revolution was a war based off principles, and fought by both Loyalists and Patriots. The Loyalists believed that without the kings rule they would lose their fortune, be in chaos, and mob rule; however some were just against the brutality of war. Now the Patriots were complete opposites, patriots believed in principles, freedom;to be free from taxes, the king, the tranny they faced under the rule of the king, to be able to speak when and where you want, and to practice the religion they believe in; but who was actually right the Patriots or the Loyalists. In the novel, My Brother Sam is Dead a family struggles with the decision of being Loyalists or Patriots. War is negative because of the injustice of Life, Jerry, and Sam’s death, all of which convince Tim to become neutral.