My Brother Sam Is Dead James and Christopher Collier’s historical fiction book My Brother Sam Is Dead takes place in Redding, Connecticut where chaos is breaking loose from the war. Tim Meeker, a young boy stuck in between his father (a loyalist) and his brother (Sam, a Patriot), is confused about what side he is on. Scenes in this book such as Tim’s father getting captured, a man getting shot outside the tavern, and father almost getting killed by a rebel officer bring out the best of Tim. These examples prove that fear causes you to act in ways you usually wouldn’t act.
One example in this book that shows fear causes you to act in ways you usually wouldn’t act is when the rebels are collecting guns from the tories, but Sam stole father’s gun. Tim knows that Sam is at Tom Warrup’s house with the “Brown Bess”. Tim takes it upon himself to run to Tom’s house and back with the gun. Tim sprints all the way there, gets the gun, and sprints back. “... My face was soaked with sweat. But I didn’t dare to stop to rest; All I could see in front of me was that rebel…show more content… Eventually, Tim hasn’t seen his dad for a very long time, leading him to sprint around looking for him. Father is nowhere to be seen forcing Tim to think that father has been taken by the cowboys. During his walk, he sees the cowboys out ahead of him. Tim lies to the cowboys because of fear that they might capture him too. “The sight of those unmoving figures shocked me, and I almost ran. But I didn’t. Instead I slapped the oxen on their rumps as if I hadn’t any worries about who was standing in the middle of the road” (Collier 123). This quote shows that he was about to run because of his fear of the cowboys, except he didn’t because fear made him act in a way he may usually had acted
