Do you know your point of view?

 Authors Note: I will prove to you in this essay that the point of view will affect how the book is interpreted and that the view of a scene could change. NOTE: This short essay may give away some information of the end of the book.

In My Brother Sam is Dead, the strong influence of father working on one side, and the curiousness of Sam working on the other, leaves Tim in the middle to determine his own point of view on things.  From the perspective of Tim Meeker, certain events are created in violent outbursts about how the war will have changed his family forever.  In every situation that we encounter we will each find that we have a different point of view.  In the book My Brother Sam Is Dead it specifically projects how the story could be interpreted differently, if told by others.

One way that Tim’s point of view could affect the interpretation was when Sam was getting executed by the British.  If told from the British soldiers point of view, he could have felt in control and overpowering.  However when Tim told this it made me felt full of sorrow and despair.  A quote that was spoken all throughout the book was spoken by Mr. Meeker and it went like this, “The dead pay the debt of the living.”  This quote really shows that for people to be able to feel good about them in the war they have to kill someone else in replace of themselves.  It relates to point of view because Sam had to pay the debt of someone who had done wrong in this world.  As you can see Sam’s actions could have affected many people.

Not only is the way the story is told very important because that could also change the interpretation of the reader.  Since Tim is telling the story he makes his brother seem like the most wonderfully brave and fun college boy.  So I would interpret that Sam is a real fun and brave guy.  On the other hand if father was telling the story then I would assume that he is a real arrogant immature college kid.  Therefore the point of view of the narrator is very important if we will want to know about other characters or scenes.

Interpretation is one of the main things that would change if the point of view changed.  That is not the only thing that would change though the scenes in the book would also change because the new character could not have been involved in it.  When you’re reading a story you need to make sure that you know the point of view from which it is being told; that is very important.  Next time you read a story try and imagine the story as if in a different perspective.