We just don't fight to fight

S.S. Revolutionary War Essay

Author’s Note: The Revolutionary War was a time of pain and suffering, but it turned out okay. In the movie The Patriot and the book Cast Two Shadows almost talk about the same things. This essay will show you that even two different stories can have the same meaning.

Movies and books can have many different things in common. They could be set in the same time period, they could be set in the same place, or they could even be about the same thing. That is what the movie The Patriot and the book that I read called Cast Two Shadows by Ann Rinaldi. This book and this movie both have to do with family, slaves, and rebels.

Caroline Whitaker’s father is in prison; her brother is off fighting for the Loyalists; and she, her mother, and her sister are confined to one room as a British colonel occupies their plantation house. She will do anything to fight for her family, just like Benjamin Martin in The Patriot. Caroline’s fight starts with going to help her brother who is injured. In The Patriot, Benjamin’s fight starts by helping his son try to win the war. I think that these two situations are alike because they both have to do with their families. Real people in the Revolutionary War had to cope with family situations. They didn’t really know if their love ones would ever come back to them. Some people though as their slaves as part of their family, but they also had to deal with knowing that they might have to go to war and never come back.

Slaves had to do with both The Patriot and Cast Two Shadows. In the movie, the slaves of Benjamin are like family to him. When the British come to take them away, Benjamin and his family feel like they are taking their most beloved relatives. In the book, Caroline had a special connection with one of the slaves at her family's plantation, because one of the slaves is actually Caroline’s grandmother! To make sure her grandmother, Miz. Melindy, won’t be taken away; like the slaves from The Patriot, Miz. Melindy had to pretend that she had marle fever. In both the book and the movie, the portray slaves as family, I know I would. But fighting for slaves wasn’t the only thing; some people fought and rebels.

Rebels were people who rose in a armed resistance against an established government or ruler. That is that Benjamin was. He made a armed resistance to go after the Red Coats. He was fighting for his freedom; just like Caroline’s father did. Caroline’s father was put into jail because of him being a rebel. Caroline and her family really wanted him back, but being a rebel was in their blood. Afterwards, Caroline because a rebel, but she fought in a different way than Benjamin. She fought to protect her family; to make them free in their own home again, and to also get her father back. I know that some people in the Revolutionary War did both of these things. All they wanted was to be free to do what they wanted to do; to not be ruled by a selfish king.

In the Revolutionary War, people had to deal with family, slaves, and rebels; just like The Patriot and Cast Two Shadows. They fought and fought till they couldn’t no more. But in the end, all of this fighting was worth it. Not we are free people, and that is all they ever wanted.

Sources:

Rinaldi, Ann. Cast two shadows: the American revolution in the South. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1998. Print.
The Patriot. Dir. Roland Emmerich. Perf. Mell Gipson. Columbia ;, 2000. Film.
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