My Brother Sam Is Dead

Words: 1489
Pages: 6

The novel My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, and the short story “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, share similar themes. My Brother Sam is Dead shows the eldest son, Sam Meeker, going out to fight in the Revolutionary War, with the Patriots side however, the father, Eliphalet Meeker, is with the other side, the Loyalist, causing the youngest son, Tim Meeker having trouble which side to pick which is questioned throughout the novel. “The Sniper” takes place in Dublin, Ireland between a sniper with the Republican and another sniper with the Free Staters, trying to get the perfect shot to kill the other. After the Republican Sniper kills the Free Staters Sniper by tricking him, he flips over the body that he …show more content…
In the text, it states, “The sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered. The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse. The sweat stood out on his forehead. Weakened by his wound and the long summer day of fasting and watching on the roof, he revolted from the sight of the shattered mass of his dead enemy. His teeth chattered, he began to gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody”(227). War not only changes people but also had an overpowers people’s mind making them think that by being in war it'll give them victory and pride, but deep down inside them they don’t want to do and they regret killing others. Consequently, it makes them have this remorse inside of them but they ignore that feeling and continue to kill others in war which then shows how war changes people. Additionally, this short story shows theme of war being a disadvantage on people and families because it makes people be more loyal to war than their actual family and think of war before their family. This is shown when it states, “He was eating a sandwich hungrily. He had eaten nothing since morning… Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face.”(225-228). The Republican sniper was sitting on top of the …show more content…
The text show that war only tears families apart and it also changes people turning them into beast. Moreover, the soldiers became more devoted to war rather than their own family which shows that war changes people into doing things that don’t actually want to do. Lastly, the themes show that people are willing to do anything just so they can have the victory and glory of war even if that means that means losing their family bond. These two text are important for people my age to read because it shows the reality of war and what really happens during war rather than what we actually think which is people fight and in the end there's a winner and we don't focus on the negative aspect of it. Also, it's important because people my age don’t really interest in war and don’t really look into, so reading these two texts show what war really is which informs us and shows the actuality of war. Students like me can learn from these two text is that war is a very serious and dangerous thing, especially because it can destroy a person or even a family which makes war very poisonous. Furthermore, we can learn is that no matter what war will still occur because people will continue to get in fights and it's inevitable but we can learn that fighting is not a good way to answer it and instead we should show love and sympathy to others and not answer issues and problems through violence. Lastly, we can