The Power of Self-Importance

Sad, alone, useless, unimportant.  These are words that you could use to describe how Jobyfelt about himself in the beginning of the short story, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh,” by Ray Bradbury.  However, words such as self confident, hopeful, and important are words to describe Joby at the end of the story.  This sweet short story brought me to see the true power of self-importance because it is shown while the main character changes throughout the story.  At first he was miserable when he thought he had no importance, but when the General made him realize he did have a reason in this world, Joby seemed like a new and improved person.

When Joby thought that he wasn’t important and was useless to the others around him, he had no hope in himself and was very pessimistic.  For example, he had very little confidence in himself that he’d make it out of the war alive.  For example, the lines, “Me, thought the boy, I got only a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield,” and the fact that he thought that the soldiers were all thinking, “’Me, I’m the one, I’m the one of all the rest who won’t die.  I’ll live through it.  I’ll go home.  The band will play.  And I will be there to hear it.’”  These interpretations that the drummer boy made tell me that he felt weak.  Also in the text when the General first approached him, Joby “shut his eyes to hide inside himself,” and was caught off guard crying.  This shows me that he was insecure, frightened and depressed.  If I were him, I would’ve felt the same way, being all alone and scared like that. All together, these pieces of text evidence tell me that before Joby realized his importance, he was miserable.

When Joby was finally told his importance by the army’s General, he became a happier and more self-confident person.  The General said that he was “the heart of the army” and that “if he beat a sure, steady, ever faster rhythm, then, then, their knees would come up in a long line down over that hill, one knee after the other, like a wave on the ocean floor.”  Joby realized his importance of his drum, which he was told “He must keep at it, at it!  Long and steady, steady and long!  Then, even though shot or torn, those wounds got in hot blood-in blood he’d helped stir-would feel less pain.”  This section of the text, “He swallowed.  He wiped his eyes.  He cleared his throat.  He settled himself.  Then, at last, very slowly and firmly he turned the drum so it faced up toward the sky,” make me infer that Joby changed from an insecure boy to the ever so important Drummer Boy of Shiloh.  I think this because, he realized he had no need to cry and be afraid.  The General had told him to be proud of his role in the army.  I wonder how grand I would’ve felt if I were Joby.  Afterall, he was very important.

In conclusion, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” has shown me how powerful self-importance is.  It was all the drummer boy needed to feel like he had anything in life to cling on to.  Without it, I felt the worthlessness that he felt and the feelings he had about questioning his life altogether.  This makes me think about the depressed people in our world today.  Maybe they feel the way they do because they think that their life is meaningless.  I hear people talk about hope, but maybe you need something before you can hope.  Maybe you just need someone to tell you that you are important in this world, just like the army General told The Drummer Boy of Shiloh.