The Secondary Theme of The Friendly Persuasion

The secondary theme of Friendly Persuasion is the “coming of age” of Josh Birdwell. During the time of the movie he experiences three steps into manhood. His reactions to the Civil War make his steps into manhood visible.
The first visible step into manhood is set into motion when the soldier comes into the meeting house on “First Day”. He asks men in the church if they will go to fight in the war and most of them say no. However when he asks Josh if he is afraid to fight Josh answers that he doesn’t know whether or not he is afraid. This probably sets Josh to thinking about what the soldier said. Here is where Josh takes the step. All of his life he has probably believed everything that he was taught in the Quaker church of his parents. While this is not necessarily a bad thing it is good that now, for the first time, he is beginning to question what he believes, why he believes it, and whether or not he really firmly believes it. When he has thought it through, the beliefs he comes away with will truly be his and not just what he has been told by his mother and father.
The second step into manhood comes later on. After Josh considers the soldier’s words he feels that if the rebels were endangering his family he would feel it necessary to fight. Because of this, when the rebels come near to his town he announces that he is going to go fight with the army. His mother makes it clear she does not want him to go but he stays firm in his decision. Here is the second step to manhood. His mother does not want him to go, his father probably doesn’t either, but Josh has made his decision and stands up for the right to do what he believes to be correct. His belief, however, is not that it is okay to fight. He tells hiss mother in no uncertain terms that he does not want to fight and that he is not sure he could kill, a man when the time came. However he also made it clear to her that he had to try for the sake of protecting his family. At this point his mother, in distress turns to Josh’s father for help. Mr. Birdwell, however, sees that his son has made a decision to do what he believes to be right and respects that by letting Josh go.
The third step into manhood is a bit more vague. While at the war Josh is distraught to see that he has killed a man. He probably sees now that war is not the least bit glorious. He also probably now realizes that while he believes in fighting to protect his family he hates the actual process of bloodshed. Despite this fact however, he does the honorable thing and stays put to finish out the battle to protect his friends and family.
Josh has now completed three major steps into becoming a man. He knows what he believes and why he believes it and truly believes it. He is able to make decisions he believes in even if his parents do not. Last but certainly not least, he does not glorify the things he believes in and even though believes in them he can see and accept their flaws.