Compare and Contrast

Author’s Note: This is a LA piece to help compare and contrast the childhood lives of two characters from different books and completely different time periods.

            Tim Meeker and Michael Oher have had had similar childhoods trying to grow to be a successful adult. Although they have some major differences, they have had quite similar pasts. One of the biggest differences that stands between them, is time their time period. Tim was from the Revolutionary War times, and Michael is from the modern day ghetto.

            Times during the Revolutionary War were hard, especially for the Meekers. Tim’s father and best friend Jerry were kidnapped and killed when the war was just starting up. His mother is taking it all in, with Sam fighting in the war, and only one person left to help run the Tavern. She is relying on Tim more than ever, and Tim has his own things to worry about, like keeping the tavern running, and helping Sam not get executed as an example.

            Although Mike and Tim are completely different, they are very similar on the inside in some ways too. Tim has had a brother executed as an example to other soldiers on what will happen if you break the rules, while Michael has had at least two of his youngest brothers or sisters taken by the DCS Department of Children Services. As you can most likely see, they have both suffered through hardships [that they might never get over] at about the same age while they are still growing up.

            On the other hand, they are completely different in many ways. The fact that the time period is different is one of the main reasons of their differences. In our time these days, you don’t go off to fight in the war when you are 15 or 16. This is exactly what Sam did but without his parents’ okay. Now Mike grew up in the ghetto, while Tim grew up in a Tory town before and during the Revolutionary War. Many kids are/were growing up in situations like these, but these two people have made differences, and publically spoke about their life because they aren’t embarrassed about it.

            These two guys are two very influential men that have had similar hardships throughout their childhoods, while other have had similar ones, but not spoken them to the world. Yes, their stories have taken place many years apart, but they did both do the same thing to express their feelings and previous lives; they wrote books. Michael’s book is called I Beat the Odds, while Tim’s is called My Brother Sam is Dead.