The Drummer Boy of Shiloh

     I read The Drummer Boy of Shiloh in class. The story is about a boy named Joby. He is only about 14 years old and he is in war. I really don't think that is fair at all. That is like me going to war in about 5 months which is something no 13 year old should be thinking about.
     Joby is in war but he is only the Drummer Boy. Joby doesn't want to be a drummer boy because he has no protection and no weapons to be able to fight. He is mad about that and upset. I can tell because he pushes his drum away from him, like he doesn't want to see it. I understand Joby, or at least i understand why he feels upset. I mean who would want to be in war with no protection or weapon or anything?
     It is the middle of the night in the story and the General walks over to Joby. He talks to him and boosts his self confidence. He helps him understand that being a drummer boy is very important and he should stay confident and motivated. I think that the General means well and wants Joby to be ready for the next day. I also think the General really does mean what he says, I don't think he would lie. Why else would he sit down next to Joby and talk to him for a long time? He even admitted to crying last night and why would he tell Joby that if he was lying?
     I think Joby looks up to the General as a father figure. He helps Joby and Joby's real dad isn't around so maybe he replaced him with the General. I think he does look up to the General because otherwise his speech wouldn't have effected him. I think the General really inspired Joby and the relationship of those two characters are more then just a general and a solider. Maybe when the General fist started talking to Joby he didn't think much of him, but by the time he started his speech, you could tell it was really meaningful and wise.
     I think that everyone looks up to the General. I mean he is the one who leads them everywhere. But the way Joby was effected by the speech was special. At the beginning of the story it was almost like joby was afraid of the General. The quote, "The boy shut his eyes to hide inside himself but it was too late," shows that Joby didn't want to talk to the General at first.
     I am wondering what will happen to their relationship after their talk. Will the General forget about Joby? I don't think he will. Joby isn't just a solider, he is a drummer boy. And the General helped Joby realize that. By the end of the story, Joby has stopped crying. He kind of accepts who he is, the drummer boy. He even embraces the drum, like he is accepting it.
     To prove that Joby thinks of the general as a father figure i used one of my favorite quotes. "He smelled like all fathers should smell, of sweet tabacoo, horse and boot leather, and the earth he walked upon." Joby knows what fathers smell like. Maybe he misses his father and looks up to the General to remind his of his father.
     Overall, the way that the General and Joby connect in the story is very important. Or at least it could be the start to something important. I think its amazing they can have a relationship in war, its a strong bond. They can count on each other, and of course it isn't a strong relationship but it can be, definitely. 

Summer Reading, The Catcher in the Rye

Over the summer I read The Catcher in the Rye. It was a really good classic book about a moody teenager named Holden. It is kind of a difficult read but if you read it slowly and really think about it, its pretty amazing. This book is about Holden, he goes to this big fancy private school named Pencey. Holden had been kicked out of a bunch of different schools so sure enough, he gets kicked out of Pencey also. The head master told him that he can't come back after Christmas vacation. But instead Holden runs away a few days earlier then Christmas vacation and he has to stay in Manhattan all by himself for a few days. During which he sneaks into his house without his mom and dad finding out just to talk to his sister. He also becomes very lonely and depressed. I think this is an amazing book and i really enjoyed reading it. Holden is a really complicated character and he is very hard to figure out. Sometimes in the book you feel really bad for him because he is all alone and feels really depressed. But other times, he is a really mean person and can be a jerk to a lot of people. There are a lot of complicated themes/issues in this book. Of course there is loneliness and depression, but i also think another theme might be family. Holden older brother Allie died and i think that that really effected Holden. He thought a lot about Allie and would even talk to him sometimes even though he wasn't really there. Another part of family is, I don't think that Holden is very close to his parents. He ran away from school and instead of going home and telling is parents everything and being able to live there, he felt like he had to live by himself in Manhattan. Of course he would be scared to tell his parents that he got kicked out of school, anyone would have. But to rather live by yourself in a big city then go home, kind of says he doesn't have a great relationship with them.
Overall, i think that The Catcher in the Rye is a really fantastic book. It is a great classic and sometimes it might be hard to understand but if you just take it slowly, you will see that it isn't as much hard and a great read.