Banned Books week - guest post
Sep. 28th, 2010 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imamaryanneAs I mentioned before, I'm running a Banned Books Week challenge over at my other blog. I had some interest from a reader named Tracy, who doesn't have a blog of her own. I agreed to lend her my LJ space so she could write a post on My Brother, Sam is Dead. So...here's Tracy! I hope this formats OK.
My Brother Sam is Dead by James and Christopher Collier
“But somehow even fifty years later, I keep thinking that there might have been
another way, besides, war, to achieve the same end”. –page 211
My Brother Sam is Dead is the 27th most frequently challenged book of the past
decade. It is a young adult novel depicting life in Revolutionary era through the point of
view of Tim Meeker. Tim is about eleven years old at the start of the book he desperately
wants to be like his sixteen year old brother Sam. Sam is tenacious, reckless, and finds
himself in opposition to his family as a member of the Rebel Army. The setting of My
Brother Sam is Dead is Redding, Connecticut a mostly Tory town. Tim is forced to
grown up quickly as the story progresses. First, when his father is captured by Rebel
cattle thieves and then at the end when Sam ironically is arrested on suspicion of being a
cattle thief himself.
I chose to review My Brother Sam is Dead because I am very interested in
historical fiction books that depict the Revolutionary period. I hope to someday be a
Research historian on the period and seek to answer the questions; who were the colonists
who willingly or not broke away from the most powerful nation at the time? What did
they think of themselves, each other, and the world around them? So many historical
fiction young adult books go the route of the movie The Patriot. That is the point of
view of the rebel army as encompassing “good” and the “lobsterbacks” -as Sam would
call them- as unequivocally “bad”. Of course most of the colonists wanted to break
away from Great Britain, wanted to be “free” and believed in “no taxation without
representation”. At least that is what the dissenters against My Brother Sam is Dead
would like you to believe. In truth history is complicated. It is murky and difficult
and many, many historians have tried to answer the questions presented above. Sam
represents the type of American history that is usually told-The Sons of Liberty, Paul
Revere, Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and all the rest. However, the reality is
that most colonists were like Tim, ambivalent. On page 103 Tim states: “The way Sam
explains it; it sounds right to be a Rebel. And when father explains it, it sounds right to
be a Loyalist. Although if you want to know the truth, I don’t think Father really cares.
He’s just against wars.” It is much more interesting to read about the Sams. Boys who
went off to fight for America without a second thought; boys who marched, and killed,
and died filled with patriotism and glory of war. However, what is so signification about
the Colliers’ book is that it presents the reader a view of the average American much like
how they were at the beginning of our country.
According to the website, http://mybrothersamisdead.historyofredding.com/why-
is-my-brother-sam-is-dead-challenged.htm, My Brother Sam is Dead has been challenged
for several reasons, they are as follows:
Contains profanity: In reaction to being smacked in the head by Tim Meeker
as she tries to wrestle a letter away from him, Betsy Read shouts "You Little
Bastard!"
•
Contains excessive violence: While observing the British army Tim Meeker
experiences the horrific beheading of a slave.
•
Mentions alcohol consumption: The Meeker's own a Tavern.
•
Contains unpatriotic views of the American Revolution
•
I’ll tackle the claims of excessive profanity, violence, and alcohol consumption first.
The profanity in the book is not used just to be used but rather to emphasize a point.
Also whenever profanity is used the character is always quickly corrected. In my reading
extreme profanity is only used twice, once in the aforementioned line by Betsy Read and
by Tim to Sam on page 56. Tim calls Sam a “son of a bitch” because he believes that
Mr. Meeker will be murdered by rebel soldiers looking for the gun Sam stole from their
father. Here, the word is not used superfluously but rather to make a point that Tim is
gradually changing. Tim wouldn’t even think a boastful thought in the beginning of the
book without retracting it in fear of committing a sin. Now, on page 56 he’s calling his
beloved brother a “son of a bitch” and holding a gun to Sam’s stomach. The increasing
scenes of violence and alcohol are also used to create an atmosphere of war and show its
continuing effect on Tim and other characters in the books.
My Brother Sam is Dead is an anti-war book. James Lincoln Collier and
Christopher Collier wrote the book in 1974. At this time the Vietnam War came to an
end, Nixon resigned as president, and Ford was granted limited amnesty to draft dodgers.
America was weary from a war it could not win. The novel is a reflection of the time
period in which it was created. The violence is supposed to be excessive because the
Colliers are arguing against unnecessary wars, violence, and death. For example, on page
33, Tim tries to dissuade Sam from joining the war. He says about their father,” He cried
last night after you left, Sam, maybe he knows something about wars that you don’t”.
Later on page 165, after Mr. Meeker dies on a British prison ship (the side Mr. Meeker
was fighting “on”) it is reported back to his family that his last words were “and now I go
enjoy the freedom war has brought me’”, as if to say the cause of “liberty” and “freedom”
do not matter because he cannot enjoy them in death. Lastly, in the epilogue a much older
Tim reflects on page 211, “But somehow even fifty years later, I keep thinking that there
might have been another way, besides, war, to achieve the same end”. Ultimately, the
authors want their young readers to understand that with war comes violence. Yes, it is in
the book, but the authors do not overindulge in it. It is mentioned in a line, like the
horrific beheading of a slave, but then the authors move on. Never while reading did I feel
like the book was too mature for its target audience. I also do not feel like the book
presents unpatriotic views of the American Revolution.
The book, as mentioned, was written in 1974, two years before bicentennial of the
Declaration of Independence in 1976. I won’t go into the history of it, but the 70s was a
time in which Americans –and historians- were nostalgic and romanticized their common
past. Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons were on TV and beginning with the
National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 historic sites were becoming more numerous.
While reading one gets the sense that the authors were trying to accurately recreate early
America while tying into a national re-interest in American history. Being patriotic does
not mean one has to negate or water down the truth. Furthermore, depicting the realities
of daily life for colonists does not make My Brother Sam is Dead unpatriotic. Sam’s
character is certainly very patriotic. He’s also never portrayed as wrong for being so
either. The authors just make him more of rounded character by suggesting that his
patriotism and refusal to leave the battlefront might also come from less altruistic and
noble motives. The novel is simply a demonstration of the consequences of the American
Revolutionary War for the average American. What’s less patriotic than that?
The point of My Brother Sam is Dead is simply that; the title, that is, the
relationship between Tim and his brother. Beyond the calls for independence, the battles,
and the founding fathers were real people with human interactions between one another.
Tim says on page 62, “But none of them were people I really knew and so the war had
always seemed to me like a story-something that happened in some faraway place or
faraway time, and didn’t have anything to do with me. But in the search for weapons, I
had a different feeling about it; it was real and it could come home to me, too”. What we
would lose out on if the challenges to this book were successful is a book that asks
children to look beyond themselves and understand that their actions have consequences.
My Brother Sam is Dead by James and Christopher Collier
“But somehow even fifty years later, I keep thinking that there might have been
another way, besides, war, to achieve the same end”. –page 211
My Brother Sam is Dead is the 27th most frequently challenged book of the past
decade. It is a young adult novel depicting life in Revolutionary era through the point of
view of Tim Meeker. Tim is about eleven years old at the start of the book he desperately
wants to be like his sixteen year old brother Sam. Sam is tenacious, reckless, and finds
himself in opposition to his family as a member of the Rebel Army. The setting of My
Brother Sam is Dead is Redding, Connecticut a mostly Tory town. Tim is forced to
grown up quickly as the story progresses. First, when his father is captured by Rebel
cattle thieves and then at the end when Sam ironically is arrested on suspicion of being a
cattle thief himself.
I chose to review My Brother Sam is Dead because I am very interested in
historical fiction books that depict the Revolutionary period. I hope to someday be a
Research historian on the period and seek to answer the questions; who were the colonists
who willingly or not broke away from the most powerful nation at the time? What did
they think of themselves, each other, and the world around them? So many historical
fiction young adult books go the route of the movie The Patriot. That is the point of
view of the rebel army as encompassing “good” and the “lobsterbacks” -as Sam would
call them- as unequivocally “bad”. Of course most of the colonists wanted to break
away from Great Britain, wanted to be “free” and believed in “no taxation without
representation”. At least that is what the dissenters against My Brother Sam is Dead
would like you to believe. In truth history is complicated. It is murky and difficult
and many, many historians have tried to answer the questions presented above. Sam
represents the type of American history that is usually told-The Sons of Liberty, Paul
Revere, Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and all the rest. However, the reality is
that most colonists were like Tim, ambivalent. On page 103 Tim states: “The way Sam
explains it; it sounds right to be a Rebel. And when father explains it, it sounds right to
be a Loyalist. Although if you want to know the truth, I don’t think Father really cares.
He’s just against wars.” It is much more interesting to read about the Sams. Boys who
went off to fight for America without a second thought; boys who marched, and killed,
and died filled with patriotism and glory of war. However, what is so signification about
the Colliers’ book is that it presents the reader a view of the average American much like
how they were at the beginning of our country.
According to the website, http://mybrothersamisdead.historyofredding.com/why-
is-my-brother-sam-is-dead-challenged.htm, My Brother Sam is Dead has been challenged
for several reasons, they are as follows:
Contains profanity: In reaction to being smacked in the head by Tim Meeker
as she tries to wrestle a letter away from him, Betsy Read shouts "You Little
Bastard!"
•
Contains excessive violence: While observing the British army Tim Meeker
experiences the horrific beheading of a slave.
•
Mentions alcohol consumption: The Meeker's own a Tavern.
•
Contains unpatriotic views of the American Revolution
•
I’ll tackle the claims of excessive profanity, violence, and alcohol consumption first.
The profanity in the book is not used just to be used but rather to emphasize a point.
Also whenever profanity is used the character is always quickly corrected. In my reading
extreme profanity is only used twice, once in the aforementioned line by Betsy Read and
by Tim to Sam on page 56. Tim calls Sam a “son of a bitch” because he believes that
Mr. Meeker will be murdered by rebel soldiers looking for the gun Sam stole from their
father. Here, the word is not used superfluously but rather to make a point that Tim is
gradually changing. Tim wouldn’t even think a boastful thought in the beginning of the
book without retracting it in fear of committing a sin. Now, on page 56 he’s calling his
beloved brother a “son of a bitch” and holding a gun to Sam’s stomach. The increasing
scenes of violence and alcohol are also used to create an atmosphere of war and show its
continuing effect on Tim and other characters in the books.
My Brother Sam is Dead is an anti-war book. James Lincoln Collier and
Christopher Collier wrote the book in 1974. At this time the Vietnam War came to an
end, Nixon resigned as president, and Ford was granted limited amnesty to draft dodgers.
America was weary from a war it could not win. The novel is a reflection of the time
period in which it was created. The violence is supposed to be excessive because the
Colliers are arguing against unnecessary wars, violence, and death. For example, on page
33, Tim tries to dissuade Sam from joining the war. He says about their father,” He cried
last night after you left, Sam, maybe he knows something about wars that you don’t”.
Later on page 165, after Mr. Meeker dies on a British prison ship (the side Mr. Meeker
was fighting “on”) it is reported back to his family that his last words were “and now I go
enjoy the freedom war has brought me’”, as if to say the cause of “liberty” and “freedom”
do not matter because he cannot enjoy them in death. Lastly, in the epilogue a much older
Tim reflects on page 211, “But somehow even fifty years later, I keep thinking that there
might have been another way, besides, war, to achieve the same end”. Ultimately, the
authors want their young readers to understand that with war comes violence. Yes, it is in
the book, but the authors do not overindulge in it. It is mentioned in a line, like the
horrific beheading of a slave, but then the authors move on. Never while reading did I feel
like the book was too mature for its target audience. I also do not feel like the book
presents unpatriotic views of the American Revolution.
The book, as mentioned, was written in 1974, two years before bicentennial of the
Declaration of Independence in 1976. I won’t go into the history of it, but the 70s was a
time in which Americans –and historians- were nostalgic and romanticized their common
past. Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons were on TV and beginning with the
National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 historic sites were becoming more numerous.
While reading one gets the sense that the authors were trying to accurately recreate early
America while tying into a national re-interest in American history. Being patriotic does
not mean one has to negate or water down the truth. Furthermore, depicting the realities
of daily life for colonists does not make My Brother Sam is Dead unpatriotic. Sam’s
character is certainly very patriotic. He’s also never portrayed as wrong for being so
either. The authors just make him more of rounded character by suggesting that his
patriotism and refusal to leave the battlefront might also come from less altruistic and
noble motives. The novel is simply a demonstration of the consequences of the American
Revolutionary War for the average American. What’s less patriotic than that?
The point of My Brother Sam is Dead is simply that; the title, that is, the
relationship between Tim and his brother. Beyond the calls for independence, the battles,
and the founding fathers were real people with human interactions between one another.
Tim says on page 62, “But none of them were people I really knew and so the war had
always seemed to me like a story-something that happened in some faraway place or
faraway time, and didn’t have anything to do with me. But in the search for weapons, I
had a different feeling about it; it was real and it could come home to me, too”. What we
would lose out on if the challenges to this book were successful is a book that asks
children to look beyond themselves and understand that their actions have consequences.
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