Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
My Brother Sam is Dead
By Collier and Collier
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
Chapter 1
1.) What is the name that Sam has for the British Soldiers?
2.) Explain Sam’s reasons for wanting to fight for freedom.
3.) Why was Sam’s father so against “the rebellion”?
4.) What type of point of view is the story? What is the narrator’s name?
5.) Who is Tom Warrups?
6.) How does Sam describe Captain Arnold?
7.) Why did Sam say he had come home?
8.) Even though there are four bedrooms in the house, why do the boys sleep in the loft?
(Think about and list the other purposes that the house serves as.)
9.) What is the boys’ father’s greatest fear concerning his son going off to war?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
Chapter 2
10.) What is the name of Sam and Tim’s father? What is his nickname? Characterize their
father.
11.) What is Sam and Tim’s mother’s name?
12.) Describe the setting of the story.
13.) What are the political arguments about?
14.) What was Sam’s side of the war called?
15.) How is Tim able to see Sam again?
16.) Why doesn’t Tim know which side he is on?
17.) What are the people called that side with the King?
18.) What did Sam steal from his father?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
Chapter 3
19.) Name the two battles that are mentioned at the beginning of the chapter.
20.) What question does Betsy ask Tim outside the tavern? What is Tim’s answer to the
question?
21.) What news does Betsy have for Tim at the end of the chapter?
Chapter 4
22.) Describe the scene that Tim sees inside the tavern when he peeks through the crack in
the wall.
23.) What are the soldiers trying to get from Tim’s father?
24.) What does Tim decide to do to help his father?
25.) What is Sam doing at Tom Warrups’? How does Tim finally manage to take the Brown
Bess?
26.) Why does Sam say he can’t help their father?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
Chapter 5
27.) What two ways were Tim and his family hearing news about the war?
28.) What made the people in Redding angry the most?
29.) What were the soldier’s doing to the farmer’s livestock?
30.) Why does Tim say it was hard to tell who was winning?
31.) Who is Mr. Herron? Why had he been pushed out of the General Assembly in
Hartford?
32.) When Mr. Herron says, “We’re all making sacrifices,” what is Mr. Meeker’s response?
33.) Why does Tim want to run Mr. Heron’s errand so badly? How does Tim finally figure
out a way to carry the messages?
Chapter 6
34.) What job does Tim tell Mr. Heron he’s interested in doing? Why does Mr. Heron
hesitate at first?
35.) What is Tim’s first assignment?
36.) Who does Tim meet on the road to Fairfield? Where is she going? Why won’t she give
him any information about Sam?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
37.) What does the letter that Betsy is able to get away from Tim say?
Chapter 7
38.) How does Mr. Heron react to Tim not delivering the letter?
39.) List some of the hardships that Sam and the other Patriots were experiencing.
40.) What trip does Life plan in the fall of every year?
41.) Why does Tim go on the trip? What does Tim say is the “idea of the trip”?
42.) Who comes and surrounds Tim, Life, and the cows?
43.) What does Tim see the cow-boys doing to his father? Why do they run off?
Chapter 8
44.) Describe what Mr. Platt says has been going on in their town.
45.) Who does Mr. Platt say the men are that helped Life and drove off the cow-boys?
46.) Who is Ezekiel?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
47.) Why does Ezekiel say his father had got into a rage when they heard about Sam fighting
for the Rebels?
48.) Who does Tim say he’d fight for if he were to become a soldier?
49.) Life plans on avoiding the cow-boys on the way home. What is his plan and why does
he have second thoughts about going half a day out of their way?
50.) Why did Life occasionally ride his horse a mile ahead of the wagon and back?
Chapter 9
51.) What does Life tell Tim to do if he hears him shout?
52.) What does Tim say he was doing when he realized he hadn’t seen Life in a while?
53.) Why does he immediately think something is wrong?
54.) What is the first thing Tim thinks of to do?
55.) What does he think Sam would do in the same situation?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
56.) Why is it so important that Tim get the wagon and the oxen home?
57.) Why does Tim welcome the dark when it comes?
58.) What story does Tim tell the men? How do they react to the story?
Chapter 10
59.) What does Tim have to say about the excuses that his mother made up about his father’s
disappearance?
60.) Why does Colonel Read say that the Patriots may not let Sam come home?
61.) How had getting the wagon home by himself changed Tim? How does the author show
these changes?
62.) What were the only two things that Tim and his town had seen of the war?
63.) When does Tim realize that he is a Tory?
64.) Who do the soldiers take prisoner?
65.) Who does Tom see killed inside the house?
66.)What does Tim say he didn’t feel like being anymore?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
Chapter 11
67.) What is the condition of the man at the tavern when the doctor gets to him?
68.) Why is this exciting news for Tim?
69.) Who comes running into the tavern after a while?
70.) Who is the important guest that comes into the tavern?
71.) What does Tim report to General Wooster?
72.) Who is the next important guest to come into the tavern?
73.) Why hadn’t Sam come over to see his family?
74.)How did Sam know about what happened to Life?
75.) How does Tim get his mother out to see Sam?
76.) Why does Susannah need Sam to come home so badly?
77.) Where does Sam say his duties must lie first?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
78.) What was Tim’s funny feeling about seeing Sam?
79.) What does Tim feel towards his brother at the end of the chapter?
Chapter 12
80.) What happened to the Meeker family in June of 1777?
81.) What had happened to Life after he’d been captured?
82.) How had he died?
83.) How did Tim and Susannah find out the news?
84.) What news does Betsy Read tell them when she comes into the tavern?
85.) Why does Tim think it was partly Sam’s fault that Life had died?
86.) Why didn’t the armies fight much in the winter?
87.) Why does Sam come back to Redding that winter?
88.) Why does Sam tell Tim to butcher his cattle, freeze the meat, and hide it?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
89.) Describe the hardships that the ordinary soldiers had to face with their huts?
90.) How often is Sam able to get into town?
91.) What is the internal conflict that Tim faces when Sam asks him where to find supplies?
92.) Why do some of the soldiers begin to “talk mutiny” as the winter wears on?
93.) What happens to the Meeker’s cattle when they are talking in the tavern one night?
94.) What happens to Sam at the end of the chapter?
Chapter 13
95.) When Tim goes to talk to Colonel Parsons the next day, what is the result?
96.) Who is going to try and save Sam?
97.) Why is Tim’s mother gone? What does Tim do to keep himself busy while his mother
is gone?
98.) When Colonel Read comes to visit, what reasons does he give for it “looking bad for
Sam”?
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
99.) Why does Tim begin to worry about his mother?
100.) What is decided regarding Sam at the court-martial?
101.) Why does Colonel Read finally give Tim a letter to go and see General Putnam?
102.) What is the General’s response to Tim’s story?
103.) When Tim goes to see Sam, what does he find out is Sam’s side of the story?
Chapter 14
104.) What is General Putnam’s decision regarding Sam’s execution?
105.) What is Tim’s plan to save his brother? Why wasn’t this plan successful?
106.) Why does Tim decide to attend the execution?
107.) How is Sam killed?
Epilogue
108.) Describe what happens to Tim later in life.
Name: __________________________________
Due Date: _________
ELA 7 Unit 2: Perseverance
Novel Questions
109.) What does the quote, “In war, the dead pay the debts of the living,” mean?