The Drummer Boy of Shiloh #2

Have you ever felt too young for something? As if the world expects you to act older than you are? I have always felt this way. I am one of the youngest people in the 8^th grade. I’m only twelve, and I turn thirteen at the end of November. When I was four, I was in my third year of preschool, and my parents felt like I didn’t need a fourth year because my teachers had said I was highly intelligent. So I went into kindergarten as a four-year old. Ever since then, I have always felt a tiny bit out of it. As if all the other kids were smarter than me just because of the one-year age difference. That they knew more things then I did. In “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury, I feel like Joby is experiencing this as well.

            Joby is younger than all the other soldiers. The youngest of the troop is eighteen, while Joby is only fourteen. Joby feels isolated from the other boys, the deserted island in the middle of the vast sea, the lake in the desert, the drummer boy in an army. The night before his first battle, Joby has no one to talk to, no one to calm his fears. He feels scared and doesn’t think he’ll live through the battle. He thinks the other soldiers are better prepared than he is. “Me. I only got a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield.” I think Joby is jealous of the soldiers’ shields. In the literal term, they do have real, metal shields, but also figuratively they have the shield of immortality. A soldier thinks he will live through the battle, he wishes and hopes with all his heart, because no one can imagine that they will ever die, then he feels like he is immortal, which is the only reason he marches into battle. Joby is not feeling immortal. He knows he will be at the front of the army with only his drum. He knows he will take the heat of the gunfire. He knows he will die, he doesn’t romantically fantasize that he won’t, he accepts it. And that’s why he cries.

            When the general comes to visit Joby, Joby describes the general’s scent as “fatherly”. Joby needs someone to look up to, and the general is the perfect person, better than any soldier in the army. He needs a fatherly figure to look up to, and the general is the father of the army. The general tells Joby it’s okay to cry, that Joby is the heart of the army, that it’s Joby’s job to keep the mens’ spirits going with a solid fast beat on the drum, and that the men and Joby are all equal. “There’s your cheek, fell right off the tree overhead. Raw, raw the lot of you.” This makes Joby feel equal to the men, not a sad, young drummer boy who no one cares about. The general then mentions that he cried last night as well. I don’t think the general actually cried last night. I think he said that to show Joby that it’s all right to be scared, to give Joby the feeling that if the general is scared, that the father of the army is scared, then it’s okay for Joby to be scared too. The general also gives Joby a purpose in battle, making Joby feel more included and important. The general changes the way Joby thinks about the battle and the army as well.

            Joby felt as if he had no purpose in the army. I felt as if the other kids were smarter than me. He felt as if he was too young, too small to be in a big army. That the only thing for him to do was to bang his drum and take the heat of the gunfire. After he talked with the general, Joby now has a purpose. He is the heart of the army: the sound beneath the footsteps of the marching men. He decides if they walk fast or slow. He decides if they are strong or weak. He is no longer a fourteen-year-old banging on a drum in front of a whole army with no shield to protect him from enemy fire. No, he is the drummer boy at Shiloh.

Tris is Important

Have you ever felt torn or confused? A lot of people have; it’s a common feeling to have. Personally, this is one of the feelings I experience quite often. A lot of things happen where I have to choose between doing what I want to do and doing what my loved ones are doing. Yes, usually my loved ones do what is right, but sometimes they don’t, and that’s when I feel very torn. But I always do what my loved ones do because I feel safe when I know I’m choosing something other people I love are choosing too. This is where Tris, the main character of Veronica Roth’s Insurgent, and me disagree completely.

         Tris almost always does what she wants to do, no matter the cost. She throws herself in situations where she most certainly will die. She thinks she can discover secrets by thrusting herself in the enemy’s way. In one part, she races after Jeanine, the bad guy, and almost gets herself shot in the head by friend-turned-traitor Peter, if Tobias, her boyfriend, hadn’t been there to drag her away. This is not the first time something like this has happened. Tris attacks Peter in the Amity compound for stealing her hard drive, getting herself drugged with powerful laughing gas as a result. She turns herself in to the Erudite, the bad guys, and the result is her immediate execution, in which she lives with a very impressive turn of events as Peter is found out to be the one who saved her. Who knew he was not completely bad!

         After all these near-death experiences, she risks losing the most important person to her out of everyone: Tobias. He tells her “if you throw yourself into one more dangerous situation, without thinking, you and I are through.” This hits home with Tris because he is the one person she always thought would be there by her side. I think Tris needs to think before she acts and realize that these situations end in certain death. And not just for her: if she dies, Tobias’s heart is crushed, and so is the Dauntless faction because she is like a leader to them. She is the bravest out of Dauntless, and that makes her a really important person. She doesn’t know how many lives she will destroy if she dies. She doesn’t know how many people will be heartbroken if she dies. I think she doesn’t know how important she really is. That’s why she throws herself into these situations, and is shocked when things like her almost brake up with Tobias happen. She doesn’t think she means anything. I think she needs to realize that she does.

         Tris needs to realize how important she is. If she doesn’t realize this now, she is eventually going to die and that will throw the world into chaos. Tris needs to think, and think hard, about what she could lose and what she will lose if she dies, because she will lose both. I think this is Tris’s greatest weakness. Not knowing the power she holds over people. I think eventually it will bring her down. 

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh

Have you ever felt too young for something? As if the world expects you to act older than you are? I have always felt this way. I am probably the youngest person in the 8^th grade. I’m only twelve, and I turn thirteen at the end of November. When I was four, I was in my third year of preschool, and my parents felt like I didn’t need a fourth year. That I could go into kindergarten as a four-year old. My teachers thought this as well, and so I went to kindergarten. Ever since then, I have always felt a tiny bit out of it. As if all the other kids were a lot smarter than me just because of the one-year age difference. That they knew more things then I did. In “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury, I feel like Joby is experiencing this as well.

            Joby is younger than all the other soldiers by a lot. The youngest of the troop is eighteen, while Joby is only fourteen. Joby feels isolated from the other boys, the deserted island in the middle of the vast sea, the tree in the desert, the drummer boy in an army. The night before his first battle, Joby has no one to talk to, no one to calm his fears. He feels scared and doesn’t think he’ll live through the battle. “Me. I only got a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield.” I think Joby is jealous of the soldiers’ shields. In the literal term, they do have real, metal shields, but also figuratively they have the shield of immortality. A soldier knows he will live through the battle, he wishes and hopes with all his heart, because no one can imagine that they will ever die, then he feels like he is immortal, which is the reason he marches into battle. Joby is not feeling immortal. He knows he will be at the front of the army with only his drum to take the heat of the gunfire. He knows he will die, he doesn’t romantically think he won’t, he accepts it. And that’s why he cries.

            When the general comes to visit Joby, Joby describes the general’s scent as “fatherly”. Joby needs someone to look up to, and the general is the perfect person, better than any soldier in the army. The general tells Joby it’s okay to cry, that Joby is the heart of the army, that it’s Joby’s job to keep the men’s’ spirits going with a solid fast beat on the drum, and that the men and Joby are all young. “There’s your cheek, fell right off the tree overhead. Raw, raw the lot of you.” This makes Joby feel equal to the men, not a sad, young drummer boy who no one cares about. The general also mentions that he cried last night as well. I don’t think the general actually cried last night. I think he said that to show Joby that it’s all right to be scared, to give Joby the feeling that if the general is scared, then it’s okay for him to be scared too. The general also gives Joby a purpose for the battle, making Joby feel more included and important. The general changes the way Joby thinks about the battle and the army as well.

            Joby felt as if he had no purpose in the army. He felt as if he was too young, too small to be in a big army. That the only thing for him to do was to bang his drum and try not to get shot. After he talked with the general, Joby now has a purpose. He is the heart of the army: the sound beneath the footsteps of the marching men. He decides if they walk fast or slow. He decides if they are strong or weak. He is no longer a fourteen-year-old banging on a drum in front of a whole army with no shield to protect him from enemy fire. No, he is the drummer boy at Shiloh.