Sam is a minor character in the early part of the Book of Mormon narrative. He is the third son of Lehi and the older brother of Nephi, the narrator of the Book of Mormon's first two books. Sam is almost always allied with Nephi in conflicts with their older brothers, Laman and Lemuel. In the later books of the Book of Mormon, Sam's descendants are combined with Nephi's descendants and simply called "Nephites."
Commentary
In a 1996 article, Ken Haubrock notes the paucity of information that the Book of Mormon provides about Sam. "We have only the barest sketch of him as a person," laments Haubrock. "This would not seem out of the ordinary except when we realize that Sam was witness to early Nephite history. Almost every hardship and adventure that Lehi's family went through . . . [was] probably also experienced by Sam." Haubrook also suggests that, by directing that Sam's posterity be combined with Nephi's, Lehi "implies that Nephi is receiving a double portion--just as his ancestor Joseph did through Ephraim and Manasseh--and that Sam and his decedents are to be the second half of that double portion." Grant Hardy identifies him as "an early believer in Nephi's revelations and a close ally."
Writing in Understanding the Book of Mormon, Hardy suggests that Nephi flattens all of his brothers into collective characters who either help or hinder his own efforts. "The only time that Laman does anything independently is when he goes to Laban's house to ask for the plates," Hardy writes, "otherwise, he always speaks and acts in conjunction with Lemuel. Lemuel, in turn, never opposes Laman in any way, and never appears without Laman close by." Similarly, Nephi portrays Sam as "a rather passive ally of Nephi's in family dynamics-who is bland to the point of being nearly a nonentity." Hardy calls this "selective characterization" that Nephi likely uses as a narrative strategy "in order to sharpen the main conflict between himself and Laman and Lemuel."
Literary representations
In most poetic and novelistic representations of the Book of Mormon, Sam is portrayed as Nephi's loyal sidekick with very little personality of his own—much as he is portrayed in the text of the Book of Mormon. However, several Latter-day Saint poets have described Sam in poetry. Mildred Tobler Hunt's poem "Sam Speaks," for example, portrays Sam's willingness to leave his beloved city of Jerusalem when his father and brother confirmed that it was God's will: