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?

Flowers in the Attic

Book read over the summer: Flower's in the Attic by V.C Andrews. 

Summary:

Over the summer I read a book called Flowers in the Attic, basically it's about 4 kids-Catherine (Cathy), Christopher (Chris), Cory, and Carrie Dollanger and their parents. From Cathy's point of view she describes what happens the day after her father dies. Their mother takes them to the grandparent's house, telling them about the grand riches they will have once he dies. She then locks them in a room, saying they must stay there so the mother can go and convince her father to put her back in his will. The mother explains that her father took her out of the will in the first place because she married his half-brother than ran away. She then explains they must stay locked up in that single room, till either he dies or till he forgives her.

But soon after that, Cathy begins to get....restless, she begins to feel that she doesn't want all the riches her grandfather has, she just wants to be out of the room in order to be able to practice her dancing dream. She tells her mother this, but she gets the response of saying how they will be rich beyond their dreams and she can practice dancing then. Cathy then wants to leave the room because she wants to be outside, she wants the twins-who are slowly dying and not growing since they're been trapped in the room for 3 years now-to grow, she wants her brother to complete all his dreams. But it's still the same order. 

Soon, the twins become sick. Cathy convinces Christopher that they need to get out now, so Chris begins snooping around the house-using the key they made/stole from their mother when she wasn’t looking or paying attention. They get some money and make plans but something goes wrong and they’re forced to leave when they don’t have enough money. But, right before they do, Cory dies, leaving Carrie in a dead-state since the twins were really close with each other and wouldn’t ever do something without the other twin. But, Cathy and Chris force Carrie to go with them, insisting they need to leave or they die. They do, Cathy wraps up the story saying their survival is another story…leaving the read hanged.

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Archetype 

Shapeshifter:  I feel that Christopher-Cathy's oldest brother-is more like the shapeshifter in the story. Sometimes he's on Cathy's side-that they'll have to escape the house since the mother really doesn't care for them or has forgotten them. Though he doubts that since he loves his mother very much, he's still on Cathy's side for most of the time, since they get closer and he's beginning to trust her opinions more.  Then for the beginning/rest of the time of the story he's on the mother's side. He believes that the mother is right-she will win back the grandfather's love and she will get back into the will, then they'll be free and able to live a normal life again as a family.  He's on the mother's side than Cathy's side-not really sure who to pick since he really loves both of them.

Shadow: I think the Shadow of the story is really the mother, though some people would think it's the grandfather. The mother is really the reason the kids are stuck in the room, she's really the reason that they can't have a normal life, and she's the reason they're not growing or developing (In the Twins' case). Though it could be the grandfather-since he's the real reason that they're locked up in a room, but the mother is really the one keeping them in, it mentions in the book that her father gave her money-a lot of money-so she could have used that to help the children escape. Though she is their family, she could have had come up with some little place they could have lived, instead of being locked up in that single room.