My Brother Sam Is Dead Dialectical Journal Passages
**Page 1 of 2**
Remember to answer the THREE main questions in each response:
1. Who said it to whom and/or what are they talking about?
2. Why is it important – what deeper understanding does it give you?
3. What does it reveal about the character?
Remember to put the passages and your comments in double-entry journal format...
Passage from the novel
My Comments
1. “I thought it was pretty funny the way
...answer the THREE main
that he kept calling the British
questions on this side using
Lobsterbacks, when he was dressed
COMPLETE responses.
in red, too.” Chap. 1, pg. 5
1. “I thought it was pretty funny the way that he kept calling the British Lobsterbacks, when he was
dressed in red, too.” 1/5
2. “God meant men to obey. He meant children to obey their fathers, he meant men to obey their kings.”
1/7
3. “You may know principle, Sam, but I know war.” 1/21
4. “Father had his head down on the table, and he was crying. I’d never seen him cry before in my whole
life.” 1/22
5. “I climbed up into the balcony where the children, Indians, and black people sat.” 2/28
6. “He cried last night after you left, Sam. Maybe he knows something about wars that you don’t.” 2/33
7. “Either you live up to your principles or you don’t, and maybe you have to take a chance on getting
killed.” 2/34-35
8. “It made me wonder how the war was going to make us freer if you couldn’t read any paper you wanted
anymore.” 3/39
9. “Father didn’t like anyone to tell him what to do anymore than Sam did.” 4/51
10.
“How could I not go when all of my friends were going?” 4/58
“I wondered, if I went for a soldier, which army would I join? The British had the best uniforms and
the shiny new guns, but there was something exciting about the Patriots--being underdogs and fighting
off the mighty British army.” 5/65
11.
“I don’t know what Heron’s game is. he talks like a Tory all right, but it doesn’t all quite make sense.”
5/70
12.
“It didn’t make any sense. Mr. Heron was supposed to be a Tory; he wasn’t supposed to know where
American commissary officers were.” 6/80
13.
My Brother Sam Is Dead Dialectical Journal Passages
**Page 2 of 2**
14.
“I’m going to write to him, Life. He must surely be worried that we’re all right.”
15.
“Here I was in a foreign country, and it was just like being at home.” 7/98
16.
“There’ll be trouble all the way to the Hudson.” 8/101
7/88
“‘Maybe they’ll win,’ I said. ‘They can’t. How can they beat the whole British army? It’ll serve them
right for being disloyal.’” 8/103
17.
“It felt so lonely to be by myself with Father gone and maybe dead and nobody but myself to do--to
do whatever had to be done.” 9/120
18.
“My hands shook so hard I dropped my stick and my knees were so weak I could
9/126
19.
“Ever since I had got the wagon home by myself I hadn’t felt like a boy
think that things really happen overnight, but this one did.” 10/132
20.
21.
hardly walk.“
anymore.
You
don’t
“We’re mostly Tories here. Suddenly I realized that I was.” 10/139
“She raised the poker over her head, and I knew from the mad look in her eye that she would hit
Captain Betts if she had to.” 11/150
22.
23.
“For the first time in my life I knew that Sam was wrong about something.” 11/162
24.
“I don’t care who wins anymore. I just want it to be over.” 12/167
“All at once she began to sob. It only lasted ten seconds. Then she turned and
went into the
house, and when I went in a minute later she was calmly scrubbing some beets.” 12/175
25.
“The way Colonel Parsons talked about it bothered me. He didn’t seem to care very much whether
Sam was guilty or not. I didn’t seem very important to him.” 13/185
26.
“The one thing Putnam cannot do at this point is show clemency. If he is going to make a point with
the troops, he can’t start letting people off easily.” 13/194-95
27.
“Men must fight and women must weep, but you’ll get not tears from me. I’ve done my weeping for
this war.” 14/202
28.
29.
“Father said, ‘In war the dead pay the debts of the living,’ and they have paid us well.”
E/211