Drummer boy of Shiloh

The “Drummer Boy of Shiloh” is about a just-turned 14 year old boy named Joby. Joby is the drummer boy for the battle of Shiloh, but he doesn’t really want to be. “I only got a drum, 2 sticks to beat it with, and no shield.” He thinks he’s gonna die with no protection, and since he can’t really do anything about it, all he does it sit at an Orchard tree till the General finds him. The General speaks words of confidence to Joby, he tells him that being the drummer boy is something Joby should be proud of, and that Joby is one of the important things in the war. Though, Joby is only slightly convinced, the general leaves Joby to rest. Joby lays back down at the orchard tree, thinking that the drum isn’t all bad and that war probably isn’t so bad.

War it scares people. It scares Joby and basically everyone. For in war, you or others die trying to protect something you love or trying to get something you need. In war, you need confidence, you need to be strong, or you die, or possibly your whole army dies. Like the general was telling Joby, being the drummer boy of Shiloh makes the army strong; it makes the have confidence-well with the right beat and emotion. If he is weak then the army is weak. But if he is strong then the army is strong. Joby makes them strong or weak because the drummer boy of Shiloh is basically the heart of the army. But in order for Joby to be strong, to make the army strong, he needs to have confidence. He needs to be able to go out onto the battle field and be confident about it, be strong about, for how can the body be strong with a weak heart?

A way for the heart to be strong is to have a friend or family member near them, to have someone they know near them, so they don’t feel alone and weak. Though, Joby has no friends or family members in the army, he and the general share a little bond between each other. ‘He smelled as all fathers should smell, of salt-sweat, tobacco, horse and boot leather, and the earth he walked upon.’ The General reminded Joby of a father, of his own father more likely, of any father. Fathers give people comfort-or at least some people-they make things easier for the person to go through stuff. For some people need some familiar comfort to be strong-how can you be strong in a place you know nothing about? Joby is young, he knows nothing of the war, he doesn’t know how to fight, only knows how to beat a drum, only knows how to be a drummer boy. So how can he be strong with nothing? It’s like the first day of school at a new school where you have no friends, you don’t know anything about the school. You would be quiet and uncomfortable, not knowing what to do or what you want to do is right. Then a person comes up to you and tries to help you, they help you get through classes, find friends who can help you. You now kinda feel confidence or strong, having people to help you. It’s also like being the new kid who only knows a foreign language and not the language the people around you know, like I was. Then a person who knows the same language as you comes and helps explain about anything, helps explain what people are saying. It’s the same for Joby-he is the new kid or you; he doesn’t really know anything about war-except knowing he could die-then the general-the new friend- comes over and basically comforts him, since obviously he knows more about war and death than Joby does. He tells him sorts of things then in the end it says after the general leaves: ‘Joby lay for a moment, staring, unable to see where the man had gone. He swallowed. He wiped his eyes. He cleared his throat. He settled himself. Then, at last, very slowly and firmly he turned the drum so it faced up toward the sky. He lay next to it, his arm around it, feeling the tremor, the touch, the muted thunder as all the rest of April night in the year 1862, near the Tennessee River, not far from the Owl Creek, very close the church named Shiloh, the peach blossoms fell on the drum.’  Though Joby is not fully comforted by the General’s words he feels a bit more peaceful, a bit more ready for the war to come.

The “Drummer boy of Shiloh” is really an amazing short-story. It’s taught me lots of things, like, how you should always have confidence in yourself; just like Joby should have had in the beginning in the story but he gradually learned to have. Also, how with friends and others you can gain things more than you can when you’re alone. Joby gained to have more confidence; more peacefulness in himself with the general, without him Joby would have been crying and scared, well, more than he is right now. He would still be like oh I shouldn’t do this, I’m gonna die, I should hide and let the others fight and get killed, but now that the general has talked to him he’s like, okay, maybe I should go out there with the soldiers, I’m the drummer boy, I keep them alive I keep them right and running. The story teaches me that not everyone is alone, Joby basically thought he was all alone in the beginning, thinking he was the youngest and everything for him was gonna go wrong. Then after being with the general, after listening to him about being strong, having confidence, about how everything was gonna be alright as long as he kept a strong steady beat, Joby learned that he isn’t alone, that he had the general, had his drum, has his beats to keep him-and the army-alive.  Though Joby may never come out of the war alive….it’s better that he went down with confidence, keeping the army alive…instead of hiding and crying…right?