“You can’t stay Young Forever, so Treasure it while You Can.”

Authors Note: This story is going to be about the similarities and differences between a young girl who is 18 who is from my independent novel, "It's not Summer Without You," named Isabella/Bella and the main Charter Sam in, “My Brother Sam is Dead, “and how they both experienced lose of innocence.

All kids want to become older and be adults, and all adults wish they were younger. Instead of kids living the life when their younger they do everything possible to act older. For instance in the novel, “It’s not Summer without you,” by Jenny Han, A 18 year old girl named Isabella wants to get married to a boy she has known forever, losing her innocence. Yet she barley can afford the wedding and her mom will not come, to prove that her idea was crazy. Also from my historical fiction novel, “My brother Sam is Dead,” the character Sam lost his innocence by to going off to war to be a American instead of what he truly is a Englishman. His father does not approve because he is only 16.What these characters need to realize is childhood is only so long, enjoy it well you can.

To begin the resemblances to the characters is they both lost their innocence in their teenage years. Both Sam and Belly both went against their parents’ judgment because they thought they were old enough. Even though they both went against their parents in beginning they ended up coming through in the end. For Sam he came home to his father and apologized for stealing his gun and returned it. For Isabella in, “It’s not Summer Without You,” she decided not to get married and waited till it could be more special and she could afford more things and most of all till she got older.

On the other hand there are also many differences. For example in, “My brother Sam is Dead,” Sam in the end dies and he is only 16 years old. As for Isabella in, “ It’s not Summer Without You,:” she was older then Sam and a bit more mature, and she decided that getting married at 18 wasn’t the best idea especially when she was in love with somebody else.

Results of these similarities and differences were Sam from, “My brother Sam is Dead,” was he came back to his home returning the gun to his father, to the result of dying trying to steal back his family cow, that had been stolen by thief's.The results for Isabella in, “It’s not Summer Without you,” is she ended up making the more grownup decision and got married later to a person she truly was in love with.

In conclusion both of these characters realize they were still children and needed to figure out how to make grownup decisions. They learn how important their childhood really was, and learned that being an adult doesn’t just come to you at a certain age, it’s a process that requires responsibility and making the hard decisions.

“For Every Action there’s an Opposite Reaction”

In every story there is a climax, for example in the story, "My brother Sam is Dead," the climax is when Sam steals the bayonet from his father and uses it in war. The climax of the story is typically is the most intense, exciting, or important point of something. Why I believe that Sam stealing his father’s bayonet was the climax is because after that happened was when all of the excitement happened, and when things in the story started to go wrong.

The cause of Sam stealing the gun leads to his Fathers disappointment and anger. His father was certainly not pleased he stole something he considered a prized possession. At first Sam thought he was part of the family and he could take it if he wanted. At first he didn’t care if his father was mad, he was supposedly a, "man", now and wanted to be a free American, even though he was only 16. Back then, people were forced to grow up faster and it was even normal for people to be married for when there 15 or even younger. Yet Sam's father would not allow the idiotic mistakes his son was making, as he would say," he's just a child."

Later Sam realizes the effects of his decisions, the guilt finally got to him. Sam realized that he wasn’t one to steal or fight for something that he knew wasn’t right. When Sam realized that he decided he needed to return what was rightly fully his fathers, and apologize. This is when Sam started to grow up, and make manly decisions. When he comes home he finds there is conflict, but Sam did not died on the battle field he died on the same grounds from where he was raised, by being shot by soldiers, for a crime he didn’t commit. After reading this book the one word that came to my mind is, “karma.” Karma is when you do something bad it comes back to bite you. Everything that happened to Sam was all the effects of Sam stealing his father’s gun. For every action Sam made there was an opposite reaction, which in the end lead to death.