Inside the work of fiction Anson’s Way through Gary D. Schmidt, a youthful British subject Anson Granville Staplyton alters from his family honor to his ever-changing sense of justice in Ireland. Carrying on an old family tradition, Anson shipped off to Dublin to be a drummer in the Staffordshire Fencibles with his father, the colonel. He was sent to maintain order and he understood that any residents who didn't obey the king's rule must be forced to comply. Anson was eager to help keep the peace in Ireland, but after the Fencibles shot a poor farmer, lashed a man for teaching a school, and burned a peaceful village, Anson felt his loyalties painfully divided.
It was the proudest day of Anson's life when he followed his ancestors, dressed up in full uniform, and became the drummer boy to the troops that his father led for King George II. He had dreamed of it all his life to follow the family tradition of serving His Majesty. But after landing in Ireland, the Fencibles found their assignment of keeping peace was something less than glorious. Anson was stunned when the first action he witnessed was the brutal whipping of Owen Roe Sullivan, a "hedge master" punished for secretly teaching Irish history, religion, and language, a high crime in Britain. Anson didn’t believe they had the right to lash him for educating children who had no schooling whatsoever.
Anson’s next assignment in keeping peace in Ireland was just as bad. Colonel Staplyton had been ordered by His Majesty to take away a horse from a poor Irish farmer by the name of Arthur O’Leary. It was one of the king’s rules that an Irishman could not own a horse of value. Because O’Leary refused to give the horse away to the Fencibles, the lieutenant shot him and his son. Anson pitied the old farmer’s family, for they had nothing without their father. He personally apologized, and paid for the horse. Slowly, Anson and the farmer’s daughter, Sorcha O’Leary became close.
When Anson met the Irish hedge master and the two of the O’Leary family, he became very good friends with all of them, and visited often, though he still had duties as a Fencible. One day, Sorcha showed him the small school where the Irish hedge master illegally taught the Irish language and history. In an instant, Anson felt truly sorry for the children sitting in the classroom, who were willing to risk their lives just to have a decent education. He started to question the use of violence to maintain peace because of its cost on innocent human lives and its overwhelming impact on a country's distinctive landscape and culture.
Anson Staplyton, the young drummer in the Staffordshire Fencibles, changed his point of view from his family honor, to his changing feeling of justice in Ireland. Anson was very proud to follow the family tradition to serve His Majesty as a Staffordshire Fencible, but his dreams of adventure and glory were soon replaced by a very different reality. Once he had witnessed the lashing of a hedge master, and the shooting a poor farmer, Anson couldn’t help but wonder why the king was using violence to uphold peace. He had fully changed his opinion on the king’s greatness once he met Sorcha, who showed him how hard it was to continue in life while everyone else had almost given up.
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