My Brother Sam Is Dead Theme of Visions of America

What's the first thing you think of when it comes to Colonial America? Perhaps it's funny little bonnets. Or maybe churning butter. Well, we don't get many bonnets or much butter in My Brother Sam Is Dead, but we're right in the thick of Colonial America. It might be pretty (like, really pretty), but it's definitely a ton of work—we're talking serious back-breaking oxen-herding work here. And of course, we're looking at a war-ridden area here. So despite that quaint picture we have in our heads of Colonial New England, we have to remember that it wasn't just rainbows and butterflies.

Questions About Visions of America

  1. What is Tim's favorite part about the colonies? What does he find beautiful? And what does he find disappointing?
  2. How does Tim characterize work in the colonies? Is all the work hard, or are there easy tasks too? And is hard work a bad thing or a good thing?
  3. What is it like for Tim to travel to different colonies? How does it make him feel about his own colony of Connecticut?
  4. What's the difference between thinking of America as colonies instead of a country?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

America rocks. Tim loves how pretty America is so he's totally sold that it's a great place to live.

America is too much hard work. Seriously, there's a lot of work to do in these colonies and Tim isn't sure he likes it.