The Drummer Boy of Shiloh- Peach Blossoms

  In the story, "Drummer Boy of Shiloh", (By Ray Bradbury), there is a boy named Joby who is sitting in the dark the day before war, ( more specifically the Battle of Shiloh) scared. He's afraid of death, being defenseless. Joby is a mere teenager, and he is the drummer boy for the army. Joby is thinking about his family, and maybe how he will be a hero. Maybe Joby will come home and have a band playing for him. Joby is also scared because he doesn’t have a weapon in battle. All he has is a drum and two sticks to beat it with. No gun, no protection. Just Joby and his Drum.  He is silently crying when the general comes to Joby and gives him some strong advice about war. He also confides to Joby that even the best, the general, cries too. The general tells Joby not to be ashamed of crying, because he saw Joby quickly wiping his tears away when the general came up to him. An important piece of advice he tells Joby though is that he is the heart of the army. If the general somehow got left behind, or fallen, then Joby had to take on control to lead to army with his drum.  How Joby beats his drum, it tells the army how to move and act. This told Joby to take self responsibility, and act like an adult. Whilst reading the story, I noticed there were some hidden symbols in the story too.
   Joby's innocence is shown throughout the story. Something shows his innocence, the peach blossoms. Joby had only just turned 14 and isn’t nearly a man yet. He is scared because in a few hours, Joby could be dead. He is silently crying the night before the war, thinking about all the things that could happen during the war. But when does Joby’s innocence disappear?  When he sees the first body fall to ground? Or piles of dead scattered all over?
        The peach blossoms explain his innocence because a peach blossom is not fully grown yet. When it is grown, Joby is a man. As it said in the story, The general told Joby, “There’s your cheek, fell right off the tree overhead.” He was referring to the peach blossoms, and how Joby and the blossoms were both young; not an adult yet. Also, in another part of the story, The general asks the boy, “Do you shave yet? Fool of a question.” The general is implying that Joby is not yet a man, he is just a boy. And most of the army were also young lads like Joby himself. Then after the general had left, in the end of the story, the symbol of peach blossoms popped up again. When Joby was laying against the tree, it said on the last sentence, “...the peach blossoms fell on the drum.” This was a sentence that could be inferred in a lot of different ways. I personally thought that since the peach blossoms could be referring to Joby, Joby could fall down on the ground with his drum when he gets shot/ wounded.
        This is how the peach blossoms in the story symbolizes the boy’s innocence. The blossom could burst soon, and the boy’s innocence could be lost too.