The Drummer Boy of Shiloh Response

In the story The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Barbary, the theme is self importance. Joby is a fourteen year-old drummer boy in the army.  In the beginning, Joby thought he was useless because he did nothing important for the army. When the general found Joby crying he walked up to him and started to assure Joby that he was not totally useless. He told Joby that he played a very important role in the army. The theme of self importance is displayed as Joby’s self-esteem is dramatically improved by the general throughout the story.

            Joby’s self importance grows when he speaks to the general.  For example, when the general said, “You want to cry some more, go on ahead.   I did the same last night.” That statement helped Joby realize that soldiers cry.   Joby’s self importance started to improve because he understood it was alright to be afraid.  The general’s conversation was the beginning of improving Joby’s self importance.

            The General continued to help Joby’s self importance improve. For example, when the General said, “You are the heart of the army.” That helped Joby’s self importance because it assured him that he played a very important role in the army by playing the drum. It proved to Joby that he was actually the most important part of the army because the drumbeat set the tone for the soldier to march and fight. The general really changed Joby’s view on his self importance.

            The theme of the book is self importance. Joby’s self importance in the beginning was low because he thought he was totally useless to the army. Then Joby’s self importance improved when the General explained how significant to the army he was because he was the heart of the army. Overall, Joby’s self importance grows throughout the story because the General spoke to him about how important his job was to the army.