James Lincoln Collier and Tim O'Brien

This paper compares two first-person novels about war, My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier and his brother Christopher Collier, and The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien. The first is a story about the American Revolution, the second is a story about the war in Vietnam. Both are firsthand stories of very different American wars, narrated by characters named Tim, and both are very interesting novels that tell about important history from very personal points of view. Both are fictional accounts that could easily be true. This paper shows some of their most important similarities and differences.

My Brother Sam Is Dead is set in the town of Redding, Connecticut, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. This setting puts the story close to a lot of major historical events. It also lets the authors create a realistic picture of life during that time.

The story is told by Tim Meeker, who is about 14 at the beginning of the book. He lives with his parents, Eliphalet (known as Life) and Susannah, and helps them run their tavern. His older brother Sam, 16, has left his college studies to join the rebel cause. As much as he admires Sam, Tim is not sure that his brother is right to defy their father and leave school. He says, "It sounded right when he said it - that we should be free and not have to take orders from people who were so far away, and all that. But I figured there had to be more to it than Sam knew about" (Collier 9).

Related Essays

Doctrine of Executive War Time Powers .... 2002. "Youngstown Revisited." Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly Collier, Christopher and James Lincoln Collier. 1986. Decision in Philadelphia. .... (6405 26 )

Powers of the Executive in Times of War .... 2002. "Youngstown Revisited." Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly Collier, Christopher and James Lincoln Collier. 1986. Decision in Philadelphia. .... (6519 26 )

Ideas that shaped the US Constitution .... Ideologies. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Collier, Christopher and James Lincoln. Decision in Philadelphia. New York: Ballantine, 1986. .... (1586 6 )

SLAVERY & THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION .... Ed. Paul Finklestein. New York: Garland, 1989. Collier, Christopher, and James Lincoln Collier. Decision in Philadelphia The Constitutional Convention of 1787. .... (3915 16 )

Louis Armstrong .... Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong: An American Success Story. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1985. Harrison, Max. .... (1896 8 )

d, these small fights show how horrible war is. While Sam's Tim could have been a real person who lived through the Revolutionary War, The Things They Carried's Tim actually survived the war in Vietnam. However, this book is also fiction. Tim O'Brien based his stories on people and events that he experienced or heard about, but, as he writes, "A long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented" (203). Most of the book takes place in Vietnam, though some parts are set in Worthington, Minnesota, and other places in the United States. The setting is important because it is a foreign land, which makes many of the events seem weird and far away and contrasts them to the American scenes. It is also important because detailed descriptions make the stories seem more real. The stories are told from the point of view of Tim O'Brien, a 21-year-old college graduate drafted into the army, who is now 43 and looking back on his experiences. He says, "In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen" (O'Brien 78), and his point of view is his memory, many years later. His point of view is also to try to tell the truth

Category: Literature - J