What is symbolism? Maybe you have seen brands with their own symbols or maybe you have a word that is personal to you and your life. What’s the effect that the sign or word has on you? In “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” there are many symbols and meanings, some more complex than others. A young drummer boy named Joby has some struggles while in the army but his mood ends up changing in the end because of some highly relevant symbols and metaphors. In my opinion, symbols are very important. A significant symbol in my life is my grandma. She has taught me many wise things and has made quite an impact on my life.
“You are the heart of the army”(Bradbury 171). The General says this to Joby. This symbolizes that Joby keeps the army moving like a heart.
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A peach blossom flicked him, but it was a moth. Nothing stayed put. Nothing had a name. Nothing was as it once was.”.(Bradbury 169) This quote is actually one of my favorites because it has an entirely different meaning than it sounds. It symbolizes the confusion and misery at this time. When you think of a moth, you think negatively. It’s a moth, an insect, old and not appealing at all. However when you think of a peach blossom, you think positively. Peach blossoms are elegant, beautiful, and young. In the end, after the General and Joby had their conversation, the author ends with “ 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.”(Bradbury 172). This time when he brings up peach blossoms, it isn’t a confusion of whether they are moths are not. They are just young peach blossoms.
Joby describes the general as smelling “as all fathers should smell, of salt sweat, ginger tobacco, horse and boot leather, and the earth he walked upon.”(Bradbury 169). This quote is a symbol because it’s using highly descriptive language as imagery in the story. It brings you there as if you were seeing from Joby’s point of view. It also hints that maybe Joby is thinking