Drummer Boy of Shiloh

I just finished reading the story, The Drummer Boy of Shiloh, by Ray Bradbury, and it's starts off with a fourteen yearold boy that's a drummer boy named Joby, in the civil war, and he takes part in the Battle of Shiloh. Joby doesn't have any confidence in himself until he has a talk with the General and he gains his confidence from talking to the General.
          The author does a good job by using something to symbolize Joby through out the story. The author uses a peach blossom as the symbol, to symbolize Joby's lack of confidence and how fragile he is. A peach blossom is young, small and fragile and it fits to symbolize Joby, a young boy who has yet to become a man. You can also hear how low his confidence by him admitting he would die in war," Me, thought the boy, I got only a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield " and in the beginning you can hear, he is hesitant and says " I think so sir ,". 
    One quote that stands out from the General's speech is when he says," You are the heart of the army ," and the quote matters so much because it's telling him he does matter and it also boosts up his confidence up even more, and if he is the heart of the army and he dies then it's saying if he dies then the whole army dies because he matters that much in the army.
    Towards the end you can hear how much confidence he gained when he answers the General with no hesitation he says ," yes sir ," . At the end also it sounds like he has full confidence in himself and is ready for war when it says, " He swallowed, he wiped his eyes. He cleared his throat. He settled himself  ". So I think he finally changes in the end and turns from a young boy and into a man.
   In the end the lesson Ray Bradbury is trying to teach us is to, be more confident in yourself and I guess it is also showing that we always need a friend to lean on whenever we need help. And I guess he is also showing us that sometimes you can mean more to people then you really think.