What Wins? History or fiction?

Alex Whitehead English- Scott
6/17/15 Period. 1

Introduction:

           The assignment that I have chosen is my Historical Accuracy vs. Great story writing from the beginning of the year. I chose this piece, because I saw several things in it that I would like to change. I also thought that this piece was a good sized one, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to work with. I added some parts such as how it helps to engage the reader if the story is fictional, and I changed a lot of other grammar and some other words too. These changes made the reader think more, and I think that making the reader think is a good part of writing.

Writing:

Is it more important to have a great story or have historical accuracy? In

My Brother Sam is Dead, part of the book is historically accurate, but some stories that we have looked at such as Winter in Valley Forge are completely historically accurate. Most people may think that historical fiction books should be mainly historical, but actually, historical fiction books should also have a good story. My Brother Sam is Dead has just that.

My Brother Sam is Dead is a fairly historically accurate book, but some of the book is not. It is historically accurate though, because it is about hard times during the Revolutionary War. In the Colliers’ book, on page 150, it says, “ Timothy, I want to pray. Come here and pray with me.” This is the mother wanting to pray that everything will get better eventually during their time of hardship and war. This connects to histories in other articles such as the articles in the American Journey book. In one of these American Journey articles a man tells about how “ Soldiers suffered through a lack of food and clothing, and many became ill and died.” Overall, most of the history in the book is correct, but it is also a great story with a little fiction, because without this touch of fake, My Brother Sam is Dead wouldn’t be historical fiction. Fiction also adds a little bit of strange action into the story, because the story isn’t then all planned out as it is in the history books, so you don't know what will happen next.

Having a great story in Historical Fiction is also a good idea as I have said, because it takes the reader on a journey. In My Brother Sam is Dead, the journey is of Tim going on many adventures throughout the colonies.  It is also important to have fiction in Historical Fiction, because it adds a special creativity. Fiction also makes the book more of a story than a history lesson, so you become more engaged in reading. In the book, the family was actually not completely fake though. There was a family in a town called Redding who has the same last name. Also, a story makes the reader feel as though they are being thought about as they are reading, because the reader can make some connections to some of the characters.

Overall, In the book I read, My Brother Sam is Dead, by the Colliers’, it has several historically accurate parts, some of which include the hard times, and some of which were that people were dying and that towns were split between the Tories and the Patriots. Its good that the book is somewhat accurate, but the fact that some of the people are made up really helps give the book some more excitement. This balance of accuracy and story telling is what made this book so great.

About The Author:

Alex Whitehead is an epic pwner, who knows a bunch of other scrubs. Besides being a meme master, Alex is an english student at DeWitt Middle school. Alex tries to do his best work whenever possible, and tries to increase his skillz in writing and other subjects whenever possible. Alex has improved greatly, as long as he isn’t hallucinating, this past year in Mr. Scott’s class. Alex has written tons of work, and even accomplished 10,000 words in his NaNoWriMo story. Alex has improved a lot not just from his love of Steam and Netflix, but from his effort. Alex has done a lot of research on tactics of writing, and has listened in class everyday to learn new things. If you look at this revised copy, you can still see some of the earlier years wording, but you can also see some of my wording from now which is much for sensible.