Weibo Yang

Mrs. Hawkins
English 8
27 April 2016
The Civil War Similarities and Contrasts

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury and An Episode of War by Stephen Crane
each highlight a change in the main character's identity in an instant, but they do so in different ways.
Though, both short stories are similar there are a few differences between both short stories that the
author explains in the short stories we have read. The General encourages to Joby to see his rule in the
army differently and makes him feel better by telling him that he is the highest in the army, Do you
know now youre general of the army when the Generals left behind (Pg. 323)? Joby understands that
when the general is not on the battlefield he is the most important man in the army. In the story Joby
thinks and imagines himself to be the strongest in the army and is the most important person. On the other
hand, An Episode of War is the opposite of what Joby felt in The Drummer Boy of Shiloh. The busy
surgeon was passing near the lieutenant and said good morning with a friendly smile, but then the surgeon
noticed the lieutenant arm and his face changed, This wound evidently placed the latter on a very low
social plane (Pg. 271). The lieutenant becomes wounded and he is on a superiorly low social plane
because he got wounded. The lieutenant loses his hierarchy in The Episode of War, but then Joby in
The Drummer Boy of Shiloh. While both short stories examine a change in the main character's identity
in significantly different ways, they help us see that we humans should not define ourselves externality
because it can change, but instead should define ourselves internality because nobody else can change it.