Character Analysis
Sammy is Cassie's adorable five-year-old brother. He has "big brown teddy-bear eyes" (10.53), as well as an actual teddy bear that he leaves with Cassie when he's kidnapped by alien soldiers. (For more info on that, check out our Symbols section.)
Sammy's doing his best to be brave about this whole end-of-the-world thing, but he has his moments of just being a kid. Before they were separated, he slept with Cassie every night; and at the military base, he sleeps with Ben Parish, who's like a big brother to him. (Throughout this entire book, we just want to give Sammy a big ol' hug.)
Sammy spends most of the novel getting rescued instead of doing much of anything. Still, in the few brief chapters where we follow him around the base, we're shown that he's observant, smart and brave.
Based on some tests run at the alien facility, we're told he has a lot of potential. When Ben tries to get "Nugget" (that's Sammy's military nickname) out of a bad assignment, he's told:
"The boy didn't drop out of the damned sky, Private. If he didn't pass his prelims, he wouldn't have been assigned to your squad." (45.5)
Hmm. Makes you wonder if he'll play a bigger role later in the series. Our money's on "yes."