Blog Post #6-Revised

Drummer Boy of Shiloh
Ray Bradbury

    When I was little, I used to be always compared to my older sister who’s tall, pretty, talented, and smart. I hated when my dad compares my test score to hers. It almost happened all the time. I remembered him saying, “You should get 100% like your sister did.” My family depended on her and for that I hated her, envy her, wished that I was the one who had gotten the higher grade. I almost wish that she didn’t exist at all, until this day when things changed.

     I came home tirelessly from school, knowing that scolding awaits before me. I had gotten an eighty on my English test. I don’t want to open the door. I knew that my sister will probably be laughing at me, thinking I’m stupid. How would you flunk that easy test, it’s almost impossible. I still had to face it; so, slowly I opened the door and walked in. Waiting before me was a birthday cake. I forgot it’s my birthday today, and they didn’t. I wanted to laugh, to thank them, but tears rolled down my cheek, it was of happiness. “We know that you’ve tried your best all these years, and we want to reward you for all the hard work you’ve done” They did notice. They did know all the things I did. They'd put it in a spot of their heart even if they didn't say it.. For once, I was importance to them. For once, I was recognized.

     This was similar to what happened to Joby in "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" by Ray Bradbury. The peach blossom throughout the story signified Joby and how he had changed.

     The peach blossom in the beginning of the story symbolized Joby’s feelings and reactions to the war. “In the April night, more than once, blossoms fell from the orchard trees…fell swift and unseen, struck once, like panic, which jerked the boy upright. In silence he listened to his own heart ruffle away, at last gone from his ears and back in his chest again.” (49). Joby feels very cautious, even the slightest sound (the peach blosson) can wake him up. He knows that the war can happened at anytime, and he is alert. Through this quotation: “Beyond the third-three familiar shadows, forty thousand men, exhausted by nervous expectation, unable to sleep for romantic dreams of battles yet unfought, lay crazily askew in their uniforms.”(49). We can see that Joby and the other soldiers’ are looking forward to the war; consequently, they think that the war is a way to escape from where they’re before. At the same time they were nervous and afraid that they will die. In the beginning, Joby feels scared of the war, though this feeling changes throughout the story.

     The peach blossom in the middle of the story symbolized Joby’s confusion of the war. “The boy turned on his side. A moth brushed his face, but it was peach blossom. A peach blossom flicked him, but it was a moth. Nothing staying put. Nothing had a name. Nothing was as it once was…” (51) From the quote, Joby thinks that the war isn’t the way he imagines it to be because it says in the quote that “nothing was as it once was.” He had to face the war right now, and it’s not the romantic battles he once used to think. In addition, Joby doesn’t understand the war. “…soldiers put on their bravery with their caps, perhaps they might go away, the war with them, and not notice him lying small here, no more than a toy himself.” (51) In this quote, Joby regrets being a drummer boy and he wants to escape from the war. Joby doesn’t get the purpose of a drummer boy’s job; he doesn’t want to face the war. In the middle of the story, Joby had mix feelings about the war. He feels regretted and confused. Furthermore, he didn't realize his importance to the war until the general came into place.

     The peach blossom at the end of the story symbolized Joby’s figures his importance to the war. After the General’s talk with Joby, “…I was the drummer boy at the battle of Owl Creek or the Tennessee River, or maybe they’ll just name it after the church there. I was the drummer boy at Shiloh.ʼ …when we must get up on our legs and move!” (54) Joby finally recognize the importance of a drummer boy and how much the war needed him. He realizes this through the general’s encouragement. The drummer boy is a big part of the war because it gives the soldiers’ hope that they will win the war. “He lay next to it, his arm around it, feeling the tremor, the touch, the muted thunder as, all the rest of the April night in the year 1862, near the Tennessee River, not far from the Owl Creek, very close to the church named Shiloh, the peach blossoms fell on the drum.” (54) The peach blossom at the end gives a sense of calmness and peace.  Joby is no longer afraid of the war, and he is ready for the war the next day. In the end, Joby had recognized his importance to the war.

     The peach blossom throughout the book symbolized the changed Joby goes through. He used to be an afraid, scared boy and now he is a strong and brave solider. I finally recognized my importance as well as Joby’s.