the drummer bioy

I just finished reading the short story "The Drummer Boy Of Shiloh" by Ray Bradbury. In this story, we see the world through a young child named Joby who ran away from home to join the army and became a drummer boy. But right before the war, Joby contemplates the war and the whole situation and falls into a dreary mood. The general then finds him and snaps him out of it with some comforting word.

I found various symbols through out the story. One that really stood out to me was that the setting took place in the night time. Through out the whole story, it was occasionally said that it was a dark April night. To me, this symbolizes the darkness and wrongness of the war and how many deaths there would be. The fact that it was night time completely changed the feeling and mood of the story. Now on the other hand if it was day time, the mood wouldn't have been as scary or heartfelt. When most people think of daytime, they think happy thoughts and of happy memories. darkness brings a feeling of fear or sadness.

This story could connect to real life soldiers as well. Today, soldiers have to fight on, no matter what or get killed. No matter what, they have to drop that fear and keep going. eventually all this restricted fear will well up and exploded, leading to depressing sadness like Joby or losing there mind(mentally)