Summary Of 'The Drummer Boy Of Shiloh'

“It was indeed a solemn time and a solemn night for a boy just turned fourteen”. In “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury Joby Clem wants to be a soldier and fight in the war with the Blue Raiders. However, he is too young to be a soldier and is only a drummer boy for them and they see him as a mascot. Joby thinks the drum is just a toy. Then, soon enough the general talks to him changing his mind and making him proud of being the drummer boy for the Blue Raiders. In this story, there are symbols of heart, leadership,and fear. A symbol is something that has meaning beyond itself. In Ray Bradbury's excerpt the drum and The Drummer Boy Joby symbolize the heart of the army, the general symbolizes leadership, and The Battle of Shiloh symbolizes

In the text, Bradbury states, “Forty thousand men, exhausted by nervous expectation. Unable to sleep for romantic dreams of battles un fought, lay crazily askew in their uniforms” ( Bradbury 168). This means the men were scared or had fear from the Battle of Shiloh by saying how they are unable to sleep and having dreams about the battles to come thinking if the still would live through them. The author also states, “More than 23,000 soldiers died during those two days at The Battle of Shiloh, At the time it was the bloodiest battle in American history” (Background 167). This shows the men feared the battle because they could be one more of the men adding into those 23,000 others. Thinking they might die in the morning would make them nervous and feared of the battle. In “The Drummer boy of Shiloh” The drum and The Drummer boy Joby were the symbol as The Heart of the Army. Throughout this story the drum and Joby are remembered as the heart of the army. The drummer boy Joby will forever symbolize The Heart of the Army. He keeps the men fighting in the war motivated and all together. The drum and The Drummer boy Joby, and The General all symbolize different things. However all three of them lead to symbolize