THE DRUMMER BOY OF SHILOH: BY RAY BRADBURY

                    In ELA I’m reading a short story called The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury. This short story took place in 1872. It’s told in the perspective of the Drummer boy, Joby. Joby ran away to join the Army. This story is the night before the battle, and Joby is very confused.

              War can affect people both emotionally and physically. In this particular story, we see the main character, Joby, effected emotionally by war. His thoughts are all jumbled up and disoriented.

             War. This topic is such a terrifying topic. Right now, there are soldiers in Afghanistan getting killed. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, and aunts, cousins, and friends are getting killed. A lot has to go into making war. First, there's hate.

            Hate is an emotion, an emotion so strong that is causes you to hurt other people. Have you ever gotten into a fight with a sibling, I have. My sister and I often fight about rights around the house or what objects belong to who. One time I saw my sister wearing a neckless (that was obviously mine), and for some reason I got so mad! I DEMANDED for my neckless back, and when she wouldn’t give I threw my self right at her. (Literally, it kind of hurt.) 

             This is kind of the hate that I’m talking about. When you feel so STRONGLY about something that you're ready to attack someone for it. Your ready to hate, (of course I dont hate my sister, I just “hated” her that moment). 

           But it’s the people that make the war exist. They are like chess pieces in the game. These pieces are noble. Just like Dakota Meyer. The soldiers are like pawns, brave but only have the choice to go forward, and diagonal. Getting sagatogwed as the queen moves forward, killing several pawns in the process. Sometime I wonder what are a soldiers thoughts before they fall to the ground. Dead. Did they wonder if the were going to die, previously in the morning as Joby had? Was there doubt, how about hope. Joby wondered about "the truth...people will die...and maybe that’s why I cried.”The general cried. He cried, and cried. Many of us ask our selves this question. Why? Why did the general cry? Perhaps is was because he knows that he might die. That his men might die. That they won’t see the sun rise up from the hills. 

               “Me. I’m the one, I’m the one who won’t die. I’ll live through it. I’ll go home. The band will play. And I’ll be there to hear it. After I read this line, I thought, are you REALLY going to hear the band, Joby, after all, “You got only a drum, two sticks to beat it and no shield.”  The land, the people, the economy, and families. War effects these. But along with war there must be peace. I hope that Joby, does go back to his house, to peace to life. But Joby will never be the same Joby that he was in the beginning. He will have changed in ways that he can’t recognize or explain. 

IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES: BY JULIA ALVAREZ

              Over the summer, I've read many books, but one stood out to me. This was the book, In The Time Of The Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Somehow, Julia was able to capture history, and make it into an awesome story about four sisters and their struggle to fight the wrath of their dictator, Rafael Trujillo, also known as "El Jefe." 

In my book, there were two quotes that really stood out to me. I think the main reason they stood out to me was because they had so much to do with one of the main themes in the book. The first one means "the voice of the people the voice of god." I interoperated this quote was saying that it's gods will that the people are all free. Free from dictatorship. It's the people who get to choose, the voice of god is the voice of the people. Freedom is such a big theme in the book. After all my characters were in the mist of a dictatorship and later on in the middle of a war. Being in a dictatorship can be very harsh. It's under the rule of one man, this man will do what ever he need to do in order to stay in power. This includes killing people who might not have a picture of you hanging in their dining room.
The next quote also deals with the concept of freedom, but this is a larger type of freedom it's the freedom to have loyalty. Minerva(one of the sisters) uses this quote when she realizes that her leader isn't what she thought he was. She found out he was a "killer." I think she used this term because she was explains that now she realized that she had the freedom to choose who to support and this freedom  was the size of a whole new country. It could sculpt a whole new country. A country that could be under the rule of a dictator or a democracy.

"Voz del pueblo, voz del cielo."   

"And that's how I got free. I don't mean just going to sleepaway school on a train with a trunkful of new things. I mean in my head after I got to Inmaculada and met Sinita and saw what happened to Lina and realized that I'd just left a small cage to go into a bigger one, the size of our whole country."

-By ALANA BRENNAN