My Brother Sam Is Dead

By Peter Moon Samuel8E

Chapter 1

• Sam comes back to home from Yale University. Although everyone is happy to see Sam, they are not happy about the news that they hear from Sam. The Lobsterbacks have been massacred by the Minutemen. Ironically Sam is excited about this rebellion against the King, although he was born from the Tories land.

• Sam’s father and Sam gets into a quarrel about whether it is worth fighting in the revolutionary war to gain freedom. Father states “Free? Free to mock your King? Is it worth war to save a few pence in taxes?” In a way, Father is a patriot that seeks for maintenance in the way things are done. He also does not question the people in authority. However, Sam is the type of person that wants to open up the world for the next generation. “It’s the principles.”

After the quarrel about war, Sam gets into a more

serious conflict with father, regarding the gun. Father objects about the idea of Sam taking the

gun, not because he hated his son, but because he hated the idea of his son going to war. “Have you ever seen a dear friend

lying in the grass with the top of his skull of and his brains sliding out of them

like wet oats? Sam, it isn’t worth it.”

Chapter 2• When Tim and Father discusses

about the War, Father tells Tim that fighting for freedom is a “college-boy wind.” To father, fighting for the principles that may cost your life is simply worthless. This biased opinion was probably strictly implanted in his mind, since he was on the tories side of the land.

Tim finds out that Sam has run away from home to

Jerry’s house. When Tim and Sam meets Tim notices the Brown Bess with him. Although Tim wants to tell Father about the gun, he

doesn’t, since he wants his brother to go to war a gun. He is stuck in the middle of two opposite sides, and does not knowing which

side he should fight for.

• Tim is overall worried about his brother more than the war, and his father. Tim worries about God punishing Sam, about Sam’s survival, and etc. Since Sam is Tim’s closest family member, it is natural for Tim to react this way.

Chapter 3• Even inside the Tavern that Life

runs, there are many different arguments to whether people should be loyal to the King. Because of this, Tim’s family becomes more and more concerned about Sam, yet does not talk about it because of his Father.

The people around Tim makes it harder for Tim to make his final decision- to either

support the Tories or the Americans. Since Tim lives in a Tories land, he originally didn’t want war. However, because Betsy (Sam’s

friend) would always come and say things like “who’s side you on, or do you want your

brother to fight without a gun?In addition, Betsy always makes Tim undergo

through a hard situation by making him promise to not tell anyone about Sam coming

to Reddings.

• Tim misses his brother a lot. He wants to boast to his Sam about how he could throw rocks over the Tavern, and about how he suddenly became good at arithmetics. Tim wants to hear the brave things that Sam has done so far, and about his experience as a solider.

Chapter 4• “I was so excited, I could hardly

stand it. Tim, is so excited that it was nearly-impossible for him to act normal during lunchtime. Although Tim knew very well lying to his parents was a sin, he committed it anyway to see his brother. However, when Tim is about to go, his family’s life is in stake for the Patriots come, and coldly asks where their Brown Bess is.

• Tim slowly takes the gun from Sam, which was positioned on his hand. Just as Tim takes the gun away from Sam and runs to the Tavern, Sam catches up to Tim. Here, Tim warns Sam that he will shoot him although there weren’t any bullets inside. Just as Sam made an unexpected leap at Tim, Tim fires the gun. “You would have shot me, you little pig, wouldn’t you?”

To check if Life was alright, Tim forces Sam to go check up

on Sam together. Although Sam takes a huge risk (He was

supposed to be on duty for something else), he follows

Tim to the Tavern. There, for a split second he meets father’s eyes. Father’s, cold yet warm eyes that longed for Sam to

come back.

Chapter 5• Tim idolizes Sam extremely a lot.

I’m not saying he likes Sam quarreling with Father, or the idea of getting shot in war. However, as a younger brother his good- natured jealousy is activated when he thinks about his brother in war. “Although to tell the truth, I envied him, too.

As his admiration for his brother further develops, Tim wants to mimic his

brother’s heroic deeds by carrying out Mr. Heron’s

task. Although Father has not given Tim the

permission Tim decides to secretly become Mr. Heron’s assistant.

However, he dramatically fails because of Betsy

Reads nosiness.

• In addition to Sam’s admiration, Tim has wanted to become Mr. Heron’s assistant because of the way Mr. Heron thought about Tim. Mr. Heron compares Tim to Sam, complementing on how Tim could become a successful surveyor. “Life, you’ve got a smart boy there. Smart as Sam if he wanted to be.” However, as a boy who has only lived about a decade and a half, he does not know how dangerous mail-carrying for a powerful man could be.

Chapter 6• Chad fish. Tim told his Father that

he would go chad fishing, which was a filthy lie. Tim knew very well that lying was a sin, and that committing a sin on purpose was even worse. Although his conscience makes him feel uncomfortable his uneasiness soon vanishes in the midst of his mind when he thinks about the dangerous, heart-stopping journey that lays beyond his future.

Not long after his journey begins, an unwelcome

company (Betsy Reads) accompanies him for some

time. Knowing that her nosiness could risk Tim’s first day of his job he is

extremely cautious. However, Tim makes his final mistake-- accidently telling Betsy about seeing Mr. Heron in the morning.

• Betsy Read a girl who loved to interfere in other people’s business, intentionally destroyed Tim’s beloved future. Because of Betsy’s mammoth like physical strength, she dexterously snatched the letter from Tim and ripped it open. Unexpectedly, the message all it said was “If this message is received, we will know that the messenger is reliable.” From this quote, we may hypothesize that Mr. Heron wanted to make sure Tim was someone he could rely on as a messenger before actually sending an important business letter.

Chapter 7• Consequent to the dramatic

failure of Tim’s first mission, a new tension takes place between Tim and Mr. Heron. Although sometimes Mr. Heron and Tim would coincidentally meet Mr. Heron showed no sign of disappointment. “I’d go out to clean the barn or down to the woodlot to do some chopping. But a few times he took me by surprise before I could get away. He never said anything about the letter at all.” Overall, I believe this happening has actually saved Tim’s life, for business letters are always dangerous to carry around.

• When Sam sends two letters home about the magnificent retreat, Tim’s parents fight about whether they should, or shouldn’t reply back to Sam. From father’s perspective, replying the letter back would only encourage Sam’s false- Patriotism (College Wind). “Father said no, she shouldn’t encourage Sam in his recalcitrance.” However, from Mother’s perspective she thought as a son-parent letter, the family should assure Sam about the family’s welfare. In the end, Tim’s parents get intertwined with the idea of “Is Sam an adult.” A complexity of assertions with strong support are given on both sides.

Because Father does not have Sam to accompany him for the trip to

Verplancks Point, he brings Tim. However, Father is concerned for he has lost his only gun, and is worried about Tim’s capabilities in handling 30 cows. Nevertheless, to keep the Tavern going there weren’t any other choices to avoid this fate. “The truth is that Father didn’t

really want to take me.”

Chapter 8• While Tim and Life were

traveling to Verplancks Point, they decided to stay over night in Cousin Platt’s house to catch up on the news. They discuss about how they encountered cow- boys, laws being violated every where, and the bewilderment of the citizens. “Lawlessness has run wild, common decency between people has disappeared, every man is armed against his neighbor.”

• Although the war hasn’t reached its climax in Redding, North Salem already had villagers tarred, feathered, houses burnt, and livestock’s being butchered everywhere. From my perspective, I believe it is foreshadowing what is going to happen in Redding. “It won’t be long before they’re hanging people.”

After making a negotiation with the prices of Oxen’s and other

products, Father and Tim faces a difficult situation. Because of the harsh snowing they had to pass Ridgebury to Redding, for the long way would eventually risk their lives. Life makes the

decision of staying in Platt’s house until the weather calms

down, and hopes to not stumble across cow-boys ever again.

Chapter 9• Now that Cow boys could raid

in, Father rides a mile or two ahead of Tim to check if there are any of them hiding for an ambush. Although Life is not too enthusiastic about this idea of leaving Tim to take care of the Oxen’s, he has no choice. Once in a while, Father would check on Tim to see if he was doing alright.

• After about an 1 hour and a half, Tim realizes that Father did not come back to see if Tim was okay. He knows that there must be a problem going on with his father for his father checked upon Tim quite often. Then, Tim begins to imagine all the possible things that might happen to Father (All the bad ones). After all the worrying, he follows Grey’s footsteps to see if Father would be somewhere lying on the ground, unconscious.. “If Grey slipped, Father might have be badly hurt. He might be bleeding or even lying unconscious in the snow.”

• He then meets the cowboys that have captured Father. However, unexpectantly, Tim’s wittiness fools the cowboys. He speaks very naturally, saying that he was waiting for escorts and that he was happy to see the cowboys. The cowboys, afraid of the escorts that were to come, leaves Tim alone, and scurries off with their horses while Tim is full of triumph for fooling 3 cowboys.

Chapter 10• Because of Father’s

disappearance, life is very hard for Tim and his Mother. However, Tim does not complain for he knows that he is responsible of his family now with his brother, and Father gone. Tim acts more like a grown up, and becomes more respectable in every manner (doing the chores, serving in the Tavern, farming, cultivating crops, etc)

The British troops come to Redding. After their arrival, they go to Mr.

Heron’s house listening to Mr. Heron’s information about the Rebel troops.

(How Captain Betts is the Rebels Leader in Redding). Then, they

eventually kill Captain Betts. After that, the patriots gather and try to

fight with the British troops. A minor massacre, yet pivotal event for many

important characters die.

• After Tim watches the devastation of the Patriots, Tim is disgusted by how merciless British Troops were. After watching Samuel Smith’s slave Ned die Tim is unsure if he still wants to maintain his Tory-spirit. From my prediction, I believe Tim will follow the footsteps of Sam and become a Patriot himself.

Chapter 11• After the Tories marched out of

Redding, the continentals came after about eight hours. One of the generals that come to redding is General Benedict Arnold, who is responsible for Sam’s militia. After talking to one of Sam’s military-comrades, Tim finally meets Sam after all those years.

Tim and Sam talks about a lot about family business. An example would be butchering the cows, or

talking about Father’s death, life in the Tavern, and etc. They also

discuss about a very difficult thing-- Sam homecoming. Sam tells Tim and his Mom that he had to stay

because of his patriotism, and his promise with his friends. However,

Tim knows that it was a lie; Sam only wanted to stay because he

loved the excitement in fighting in war.

• Tim realizes something very different, something that he had never noticed before with Sam. After maturing so much, Tim feels like as if Sam is his equal. “I didn’t fee like his little brother so much anymore, I felt more like his equal.” Pg 163 Not only was this because of Tim maturing so fast, but was because his responsibility has grown with Father and Sam gone.

Chapter 12• Unfortunately, Tim found out

about his Father’s death. Father was boarded on a prisoner’s ship that was horrible in every way you can imagine. “Filthy and baking hot in summer and freezing in winter and of course nothing but slop to eat. The worst part was disease: if anybody got sick with anything serious, everybody on the ship was liable to get it.” pg 165 Although it was a miserable news, it didn’t have any critical impact, for the Meeker’s expected this, to some extent.

In the end, Tim’s decisions go back to the origin. “It seemed to me that

everybody was to blame, and I decided that I wasn’t going to be on

anybody’s side any more: neither one of them was right. “ pg 167 To Tim, a complex argument about who is right or wrong was too childish. Tim simply wanted the war to end, so that Sam would come back home to Redding

where no gunshots would exist anymore.

• Sam advice Tim to butcher the cows before it’s too late. However, Tim procrastinates the job for he deeply thinks about whether he should sell the cows, or to butcher them. One day, while Sam visits the Tavern some men steal into the cow’s penn, and butchers the cows. However, in the process of Sam trying to stop the cow thieves, Sam is instead later on blamed for this crime. “The ones who stole the cattle beat him up, and then they said he’d stolen the cattle himself and marched him off somewhere.” Pg 184

Chapter 13• After Sam is convicted as a

cattle thief, a series of new fear arrises in the Meeker’s. Regarding the fact that General Putnam was an strict patriot, he was also known to be dogmatic in hanging other people as an example. Now that Sam’s life is in danger, the Meeker’s only hope is to pray for his well being.

On February 6th, Sam is held in a trial although it was

pretty much useless. General Putnam controlled the trial,

and everything happened the way he wanted it to be-- to execute, exile, and etc. For some reason, Tim and his

mother does not feel distressed.

• In this chapter we are reminded, that fraternity is such a strong bond. Even in situations where Sam was sentenced to death, Tim pleads the officers to show “clemency” which is seldom found in General Putnam’s world. Even in the midst of death, a small fragment of hope shines in Sam’s face after hearing Tim’s news. “Is that right? Really?”

Chapter 14• Putnam returned Tim’s

plead for clemency with one cold word “Refusal.” Tim’s only hope was finally blown into pieces. Now, no more hope existed. However, Tim engages in another plan-- saving his brother himself by killing the prisoner’s guards.

Although it was a very brave attempt, it failed despite the

amount of risk Tim had taken. Nothing could be done now to

prevent the execution. “I know, war is never fair.” pg 200 From my perspective, the mishap that

befell on sam was extremely unfortunate.

• As Sam walks up into the place where he was to be executed, a Presbyterian minister prays for Sam. Then, with a large sound, three gunshots are made which, even more unfortunately does not kill Sam in an instant. Only after the fourth gunshot does Sam die. “He went on jerking with flames on his chest until another soldier shot him again. He stopped jerking.” pg 208