Points of view

- It was a hard time for everyone, especially for kids like Joby who did not have a way to defend thereselves, also because a kid does not have a mentality of going to war, but in some way the general encourages Joby to go and give the "soldiers" the pulse and rack they needed to fight for what they stand for.

- In this story we noticed that life is not easy as it seems. We have a very good life, but we don´t know how dificult could be others life. For example, the case of Joby. He is just a 14 years old boy, who doesn´t have a family, he is very poor, and now he has to face a war, using just his drum. We also can see how times have changed since that time to the real 2010, where life in some aspects is easier, and in other it could be hardest.

Summary

Joby is a young drummer boy around 14 years old, he is camping with the rest of the soldiers in a pech field near to Shiloh, he is afraid of marching into battle with no weapons only his drum and his drumsticks.

In his time out, he begin to hear whisperings that came from the soldiers,he begin to count them they were hundreds of mans who would march into battle to fight, Joby reflects about his life and the soldiers lifes before the battle but the fear to death was constanly on his mind.

He thought that if he lay very still,the soldiers might go away with the battle and not notice him lying small there.

Lately someone founds him.First Joby thought that the general who get closed to him was someone rude and brave, but then he founds him a friendly person.

The general start talking with Joby ,trying to calm him. He told Joby ythat he also cryied last night,because he knew that the battle was hard to fight and also he knew that many soldiers would die,but he encourage Joby explaning to him how important was a drummer boy in a battle, what makes Joby strong to be with them.

After this conversation he change his thought about the general and found him as someone who reminds him a father and also he discovered his sentimental side what makes Joby reflects about the generals feelings and real behavior.

Context

This short story is product of the authors imagination, the story took place around 1862 during the civil war when the U.S.A armies from north (Union) that was against the south (Confederacy), who supported the slavery, as they were facing and defendig their political views in a series of battles that ocurred in many locations around U.S. Between this locations was Shiloh ,where the author develop the story about a short age drummer boy called Joby who is scared about his future after the battle, because he is a drummer boy, so he just has his drum and the drummsticks to fight. The drummer boys mostly are kids who doesn´t have families, parents and they are very poor. There is no age limit, so kids of 8 years could be in the middle of the war, risking their lifes. This is the situation of joby, the main character of Bradbury´s story.

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury, the author of "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" and many other stories, was borned in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920.

He was the Third son, in the family created by Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg.

The bradbury family moved many times from Waukegan, but finally in 1934 they arrived to Los Angeles, were they stay definitely.

Since Ray was young, he was interested in literature, as he loved to read and write, but economic reasons didn´t let him to go to the university, so he started selling news papers on Los angeles corners as a way to survive. Bradbury spent his nights in the library and between this activities he devoted to his typewriter.

Later he wanted to do somethin with his life, and most important, something that makes him happy, so he started to write short sotries for newspapers, magazines and more, using his old writing machine.

Most of his works are of Sciene fiction and Fantasy. And in this big group of novels, stories and more, he had become a very famous and important writer, essayest, playwright, screenwriter, lecturer and poet, making him the winner of many awards during his career.