My Brother Sam Is Dead

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1974

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-11

Chapters 12-14 and Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Literary Devices

Bildungsroman

A bildungsroman is a coming-of-age story that typically tracks moral, intellectual, or psychological growth. The Collier brothers use the bildungsroman as a structuring device in My Brother Sam Is Dead, tracing Tim’s journey to adulthood in the context of war.

When the story opens, Tim is 13 and in many ways still a child. He has not had to assume much responsibility or take a moral stand on many issues. In the beginning of the book, he is confused about what he should do and think. In many coming-of-age stories the protagonist matures over a long period of time. In Tim’s story, however, he must leap into adulthood “overnight” when Father is abducted. Suddenly, Tim must take on not only an adult’s workload but also an adult’s responsibility in caring for his Mother and their business. He must make choices that are not entirely moral in order them to survive, and he feels uncomfortable with this while knowing that he must do so to keep the business running is evidence that he has grown a moral conscience. Likewise, in the Epilogue, speaking as a 64-year-old man, he demonstrates wisdom and maturity looking back on his life.

Point of View

The Collier brothers portray Tim’s story by using a first-person point of view. In first-person narration, the story unfolds through the voice of one character, usually the protagonist, as opposed to third-person omniscient narrations wherein an unidentified and all-knowing voice tells the story. In the case of this novel, the entire story is filtered through Tim’s thoughts and voice. His confusion, his fear, and his grief become very personal. The authors intend the book for young adult readers, and one way to make the book appealing for this audience is to make the protagonist a young adult with perspectives and concerns relative to this age. This makes him a more sympathetic character to his audience. The first-person point of view adds an emotive layer to the historical record and prompts the audience to identify with Tim and his struggles.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a literary device that gives the reader hints or suggestions of things to come later in the text through imagery, symbolism, setting, or language. For example, when the novel opens, it is storming with heavy rain. The rain invokes a mood of uneasiness and worry and represents the coming storm of the Revolution. Later, Father warns Tim that he may end up dead on a British ship, and this foreshadows Father’s death. These moments of foreshadowing in the novel give it an ominous tone to portray the constant threat of the war.

Irony

Literary historian Paul Fussell contends that “[e]very war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends” (Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory. Oxford University Press, 7). The Collier brothers use irony as a literary device in My Brother Sam is Dead to demonstrate the ways the war is so much worse than expected, underscoring The Glorification of War Versus the Reality.

As a literary device, verbal irony occurs when a speaker says the opposite of what they means. For example, when Father says that the Battle of Louisbourg was a “great victory,” he does not mean that victory is the only determiner of greatness. Rather, because he was forced to bring his dead friend home to his mother, Father views the victory as a terrible thing.

Dramatic irony occurs when a reader knows more than the characters in the novel. The outcome of the American Revolutionary war is a well-known historical fact, something the characters cannot know as they experience the day-to-day reality of the war. Consequently, Tim’s confusion and inability to choose a side to support becomes ironic for readers who already know that the Patriots will win the war.

The most prevalent kind of irony used in the story is situational irony of the kind described by Fussell. The consequences of rational decisions made during war are often unexpected, horrific, and so much worse than any of the characters can imagine. For example, when Father chooses to take the shorter route home because the snow makes it difficult for the oxen, he takes the risk that they will be robbed by thieves. The final consequence of that decision is that he dies on a British prison ship, something that he and Tim did not expect and the worst possible outcome—Tim even said that that the return trip from Verplancks Point should be easy without the cattle. Likewise, when Sam makes the pledge to his fellow soldiers to stay enlisted in the Continental Army, he cannot foresee that his fellow soldiers will ultimately betray him and he will be executed as a result. The symbol of Father’s musket becomes ironic at Sam’s execution because the soldiers who kill him are bearing the same kind of weapon Sam steals from Father for his own protection in the opening pages.

In an interview appearing in the Afterword to the novel, Christopher Collier confirms that “the irony is clearly intentional and runs throughout the book” (223). From placing Sam in a uniform of the same color worn by the British soldiers in the first chapter to his execution in the final chapter, the Colliers demonstrate that the war has been so much worse than expected.