Symbolism
Inference
Mood & Tone
Irony
Conflict
Wild Card
100
What do peach blossoms represent in the beginning of the story?
What do the peach blossoms falling at the end of the story represent?
Life, youth, beauty, and innocence
The loss of these things.
100
Explain Joby's reaction to the peach pit hitting the drum. Why is he so easily startled?
He is nervous and anxious about his first battle sometime in the very near future and his unpreparedness for it.
100
What is the tone of the story as it begins? How does the author feel about Joby and the other soldiers?
He views them as youthful and innocent. His tone is gentle, sentimental, sympathetic.
100
In line 17, Joby describes the soldiers "turning slow, basting themselves" with thoughts of how they might respond in battle. How could this description be ironic?
The soldiers are compared to meat cooking on a spit or in a rotisserie. This is ironic because they are figuratively coating themselves with thoughts of success and survival, but the meat would be consumed--it does not survive.
100
Explain an example of Character vs. Character conflict in the story.
Armies fighting each other; Joby not wanting to be discovered by the man walking by
100
"It is late, and the drummer boy is anxious and tired; at first glance he notices the general has "many eyes," that "watch" him. The boy quickly refocuses and realizes it is the .......
It is the general's brass buttons.
200
What does Joby's drum represent in the beginning?
Weakness, vulnerability, impracticality
200
At the beginning of the story, the author writes the drum's "great lunar face peered at him whenever he opened his eyes." What can you infer Joby is thinking & feeling to create this personification?
The drum is cold, distant, and unknown like the moon and it is watching him in an uncomfortable way. He has negative feelings about it and is maybe afraid of it.
200
What is the mood at the beginning of the story?
Suspenseful, anxious, sympathetic--the reader should be worried for Joby and the other young soldiers.
200
How are Joby's ideas that "...perhaps they might go away...and not notice him lying small here, no more than a toy himself," ironic based on the information the General reveals?
They will not go anywhere until HE, the heart of the army, commands them. He will be the first soldier missed.
200
Explain an example of Character vs. Self conflict in the story.
Joby not wanting to go with the army and thinking of a way out; the General sending men to fight who are not ready because he must although he believes it is wrong.
200
What is the mood of the passage where Joby and the General are talking?
inspired, familiar, hopeful, candid, safe
300
What does the General represent?
The father figure--he is patient, kind, concerned for "his boys"
300
Read lines 14-20. The soldiers are described as lying “askew” and “helter-skelter.” What can you infer about why the soldiers lack order?
They are relaxed, light-hearted, social. There is no one around to give them orders. They are not worried about being ready to fight.
300
Name the author's tone in lines 28-29, 33 and 40-42:
"Yes, thought the boy, that's all very well for them, they can give as well as they get...Me, thought the boy, I got only a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield...this drum which was worse than a toy in the game to be played tomorrow or someday much too soon."
Condescending, frustrated, pessimistic
300
Why is it ironic that the General encourages Joby to keep crying and admits to crying himself?
It is not typical behavior one expects from the commander of a large army. It is undignified and unprofessional.
300
Explain an example of Character vs. Nature conflict in the story.
Moths and petals fall on Joby, it is too dark to see well
300
The little pile of leaves and twigs gathered for a fire represent an optimistic and hopeful wish for brightness and light to counter and offset the dark days ahead. The symbolism and contrast of light and dark continues with the personification of the ________, which might be too ashamed to "show its face."
sun
400
What does the church represent?
The oversight by and eternal rest with a higher power.
400
Joby describes his drum as "worse than a toy" (lines 40-41). What can you infer Joby feels about the drum?
He resents the drum because he feels it makes him the most vulnerable, useless soldier on the field.
400
What mood does the author create when he reveals Joby's thoughts about going into war with only a drum and sticks?
Sympathetic, anxious
400
How is it ironic that the setting for the story is in a blossoming peach orchard near a church called "Shiloh"--which is derived from the Hebrew word for "peace"?
It is a beautiful, peaceful place where life is being created as fruit will appear after the blossoms, yet it is about to become one of the bloodiest battlefields of the war where peace, beauty, and life will be destroyed.
400
Explain an example of Character vs. Technology conflict in the story.
The men are unfamiliar and unskilled with the weapons; Joby dislikes the drum and maybe afraid of it.
400
What can you infer about the General's character based on his actions and the way he speaks? Give three details.
He's sympathetic because he talks kindly to Joby.
He's compassionate because he admits frustration and weeps for the certain loss of life among his soldiers.
He has not lost his sense of humor because he responds to Joby's vague "Sir, is that you?" with a silly answer.
500
What does Joby's drum represent at the end of the story?
He is the General's "right hand and [his] left"--he is his main source of communication and he decides the tone in which the message is delivered. He is the heart of the army. The drum is now the most important "weapon" in the arsenal instead of a liability.
500
What can you infer about how Joby is feeling and why he turns the drum back upright at the end of the story?
He is reassured, confident, and respects the drum and his role.
500
What is the author's tone as he writes about the General?
Sentimental, pessimistic, solemn
500
How is it ironic that a peach pit falls and startles Joby?
There should not be a pit stuck to a tree in April. It should have fallen off the tree, inside of a peach, during the harvest season. The fact that it is there, alone, out-of-place and falls on the one soldier who is alone and out-of-place is coincidental and ironic.
500
Explain an example of Character v. Society conflict in the story.
Hello, the Civil War? North against South?
Joby is crying, alone, under a tree while the other soldiers are whispering with each other around campfires.
500
What can you infer about the quality of soldiers under the General's command? Give two details.
They are very young--the General says so and their boyish behavior reveals it.
They are unskilled--they can't "spit a sparrow off a branch or tell a minnieball from a horse clod" and/or the General wants four months to train them.