The Drummer Boy of Shiloh

“The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury is about a young boy, Joby who is in the Civil War and it’s the night before the Battle of Shiloh. Joby is the drummer for the army and he feels that he may be killed because he has nothing to protect himself and he is scared to die. Joby begins to feel overwhelmed and starts to cry because he feels he has no purpose in the war and that he won’t do his best in the battle the next day.

The author explains in the text that Joby is barely fourteen. I’m turning fourteen this year and at my age, I would never try to fight in the war. Joby joined the war to be brave (as I would too) but realizes he may have made a fatal mistake. In the text it states, “Raw, raw the lot of you…Did you run away or join legitimate boy?”. This quote states that many boys who were Joby’s age made the mistake of joining the war. This shows that Joby wanted to be brave but can’t face the fact that he might not return home. Many soldiers today experience the fear that they may die, as this is normal, especially for someone at such a young age.

As he cries, the general goes to talk to him and tries to calm him down. The general tells Joby that he is important to the war and must beat his drum with all his pride and strength. The mentor in any story must teach a character in need of guidance or the answer to the big theme in the text. This proved that the general must be the mentor of the story. I wondered though, what’s the conflict of the story and who is the antagonist?

After searching through the text, I think the conflict is that Joby is unable to find his confidence. In the text it states, “Me, thought the boy, I only got a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield”. This quote talks about how the young boy, Joby doesn’t have any sort of weapon to protect himself. At the end of a war it doesn’t matter if he should protect himself because if he does his job well, then he made a difference in the outcome of the battle.

Throughout the story Joby is the problem of his own conflict. In the text the boys who are around him say, “Me, I’m the one, I’m the one out of all the rest who won’t die. I’ll live through it. I’ll go home. The band will play. And I’ll be there to hear it.” If Joby felt the same way as the boys he wouldn’t have been so insecure and scared to die.

After realizing the conflict I knew that the antagonist was Joby, himself. I think that Joby is standing in the way of making his goal come true, which is to live and come home to his family after the war. When the general says, “boy I need you” Joby responds “me!’ the boy’s lips barely twitched”. This means that Joby doesn’t think he can accomplish anything. I think that when Joby stepped out of his own way at the end of the story and he was able to go back to sleep he knew he would do his best to win the battle and go home.

I think that “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” proves that sometimes the problem that you are truly suffering from is your confidence. Most of the time, I discover that I am afraid of something because I think I won’t be good enough. Many kids that are me and Jobys’ age suffer from a lack of confidence. I think that “you must have confidence to succeed” is an important message Ray Bradbury wanted the reader to learn, as well as teach us that sometimes our problems, even our enemies may be ourselves.