Great Changes:

A Response to “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” By Ray Bradbury

Written By Taitu Fedenko 812

As humans, we all grow and change. We expand our horizons or we can change for the worse. In the story “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” fourteen year old Joby goes through a great change. In the beginning of the story we meet Joby a vulnerable and “unshielded” drummer boy going into war who feels unprepared. Over the course of the the author uses a reference to a peach blossom to show us this great change in Joby .By the end of the book Joby feels prepared for war and has a sense of pride to say that he is the drummer boy of Shiloh. I think that the author uses the peach blossom to represent the war and to reveal to us the change that Joby goes through.

The author starts the story with a peach stone falling and suddenly awakening Joby.The peach stone is unseen and unsuspected sort of like the war. It seems like the peach stone represents the war and the way that it wasn’t expected and how Joby doesn’t feel prepared for it. The same way he wasn’t prepared to be awoken by the peach stone  falling. The beginning of the story goes: “At midnight a peach stone left miraculously on a branch through winter, flicked by a bird fell swift and unseen; it struck once, like panic and jerked the boy upright.” (49). Another reason why I thought Joby felt like he was unprepared was that he even thinks to himself “I got only a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield” (50). This makes me realize that Joby feels alone, like he has no one to shield him or to make him feel as though everything is okay. When the peach stone falls on Joby he is unprepared for that and using the peach stone the author also shows us that Joby is unprepared for war.

The author also brings up the peach stone in the middle of the book as well . On page 51 it says “The boy turned on his side. A moth brushed his face but it was a peach blossom. A peach blossom flicked him but it was a moth. Nothing stayed put. Nothing had a name. Nothing was as it once was.” I think the author bring up the peach blossom her to show us that Joby has mixed feelings about the war. This relates to how Joby is unsure of what is happening. Did the peach blossom flick him? Did the moth brush his face? Joby is unsure of this in the same way that he is unsure about his feelings towards the war. In this case once again the peach blossom represents the war.

By the end of the book the author uses the peach blossom to show us that although the peach blossom continues to fall Joby now feels prepared  and shielded for the war. For example on page 54 it says “...very close to the church named Shiloh, the peach blossoms fell on the drum”. It seems like this time the peach blossoms are falling but it is nothing sudden to Joby. This is because he is already prepared for it to happen. Much like the peach blossoms Joby now feels shielded and like he is prepared for the war. By comparing the peach blossom to this moment the author makes you realize that although the peach blossoms haven’t changed Joby has and he now sees how important he is the the war and because of that he is now shielded.

Joby changes greatly throughout the story “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh”. He goes from feeling unprepared to feeling confused and to finally realizing that he is prepared for war. The author makes you think more deeply about these changes when he purposely mentions the peach blossoms. These moments where the author makes you compare the peach blossoms makes you think about how Joby is changing. This is because the peach blossoms might have always fallen but Joby has not always felt shielded and prepared the way he does by the end of the book. Overall, the author used the peach blossom in key moments of the story to show us this great change in Joby.