The Good Old-Fashioned War

By the end of the twentieth century, the world had witnessed two kinds of people- the
colonisers and the colonised. As colonisers, countries such as Portugal, Germany, Great
Britain and the United States aimed at attaining economic dominance by asserting their
authority in the other countries. Such authoritarian rule caused a great deal of resistance
among the colonized and subsequent retaliation since there was little consideration of their
interests.The growth of aggressive nationalism and the desire for freedom thus resulted in
the twentieth century witnessing a number of wars.

The extensive number of casualties were only augmented by the false belief of the people
which suggested that sending their sons to fight was the best way to serve their countries.
As sons were persuaded to participate in this “glorious” event and bring home “victory”,
society failed to realize that that “ victory” would later lead to the most pressing
socio-economic problems faced by mankind.

Bob Dylan, in his anti-war lyric - John Brown- beautifully portrays society’s false notions
through the relationship between a mother and his son. The mother symbolizes the time in
society when war was initially romanticized but later came to be looked down upon due to its
futility and the harm caused to society’s sons. The son on the other hand is representative
of all the soldiers who still actively engage in warfare. This way, despite being focused on
the sufferings of a single family, the lyric sends a powerful message to society as a whole
about the false glorification of war which prevailed during that time period.

As I continue to analyze this lyric further, I shall adopt the pacifist stand point which is the
same perspective from which Dylan approached the poem.

JOHN BROWN AS AN ANTI-WAR LYRIC

THEME OF FALSE ROMANTICISATION OF WAR

Bob Dylan’s Anti-War lyric, written during the commencement of the Vietnam war, is a
narration which follows the lives of an American mother sending her son, John Brown, to
war. As John Brown goes to fight in a ‘foreign shore’, Dylan describes him as standing
“straight” and “tall” in his “uniform” with his “mama” being sure “proud” of him.These short
lines throw light on what mothers in those days considered a “ perfect son” - one who served
the country and brought home “ victory”. Hence, Dylan stresses on the theme of false
romanticization of war by elucidating the sense of pride felt by John Brown and his mother.

Moving forward we see that this false sense of pride is beautifully portrayed. The fact that
her son is going to be part of such a great war, gives the mother great delight. She brags
about her excitement to see her son hold a “gun” and her desire for John Brown to bring
back a “lots of medals''. This shows that the mother is completely oblivious about the futility
of war and is unaware of the trauma that her son could be potentially be facing through all
the misery he is a part of. Thus, by portraying a mother ignorant of her son’s possible death,
Dylan highlights society’s ignorance of soldier’s emotions and how society itself is bereft of
emotions.

Dylan also mentions the mother talking about “uniform” and “gun” being a part of a “good old
fashioned war”, in order to hint at the thought process of the war mongers and poets who
romanticise war. Thereby, Dylan highlights the greatest flaw of literature- its romanticization
of war. For as long as there have been wars, literature has glorified and romanticized it.
However, by depicting the transition from a more or less unquestioning acceptance of war to
a growing disillusionment, Bob Dylan seeks to cease such romanticization and brings to light
the truth that has always lay right in front of us – the fatality and futility of war. Through the
poem , Bob Dylan thus seeks to make the youth wary of being persuaded to fight for honour
and glory to be accepted by society.

DISILLUSIONMENT

As the lyric progresses, the readers are made aware of the letters the mother occasionally
received from her brave son until it soon ceased to come for more than ten months. The
mother’s indifference to her son’s situation and concern for receiving glorious medals,
coupled with the foreshadowing employed by Bob Dylan builds suspense and leaves the
readers curious.

As the lyric advances, Dylan shifts from an optimistic tone to one of realistic pessimism in
order to juxtapose society’s delusional beliefs of war against the harsh realities of it. This is
beautifully elucidated when John’s mother is waiting for “her soldier son” in belief that her
son will turn up in all glory, only to see a man with an face “all shot up”, hand “all blown off”
and a “metal brace around his waist” whispering in a voice she “couldn’t even recognize”.
This gruesome picture painted by Dylan makes readers aware of the physical and
psychological impact that war has on comrades and thus informs society of the futile nature
of war.

As the mother attempts to ask her “darling son” the cause for his state and details of what
“they” ( the warmongers) had done to him, we see that the mother is unable to face the
horrific sight and is in a dilemma struggling to choose between letting go of society’s notions
about war and accepting harsh reality. We also notice Motherly instincts kick in as we see
the once indifferent lady caring and even empathizing. Finally, the process of disillusionment
sets in in the mother’s contemplative mind about the realities of war, but is unable to face it
as she sees her traumatized son unable to speak and a sense of guilt begins to fill her heart
forcing her to “turn away”. This process of disillusionment is completed when John shatters
any further illusions she may have had through a compelling monologue.

MONOLOGUE

In the final stretch of the lyric, the readers get a glimpse of John Brown’s thoughts for the
first time via his eloquent monologue. As John largely represents all soldiers, Dylan
succeeds in portraying the horrifying after effects of war and urges soldiers to lash back at
society for wrongfully misleading them to glorify war. This resentment is seen when John
Brown is angered at his mother for having believed that fighting the war was the “best thing”
he could do. Nevertheless, we also see a sense of care and love for the mother as he is
happy to know that his mother was at “home acting proud” while he was on the
“battleground” and “wasn’t standing” in his “shoes”. Though this may be the literal
interpretation, figuratively the soldiers are trying to persuade the society to be empathetic
with their situation and try to take a more relaxed approach to disillusionise society.

As the poem progresses, Dylan goes further to explain the harsh realities of war and
convinces readers against submitting the lives of their sons to the hands of the warmongers
through John Brown’s description of the battlefield. Dylan beautifully uses irony to project the
futility of war and comment on how the act of war is pointless. He refers to John seeing a
“face” which looked like his own -thus reflecting the universality of war and its most brutal
component which is the rendering away of humanity.

Further, Dylan’s representation of the battlefield highlights John’s thought process of

disillusionment. He talks about how John realises that he was part of the political puppertary
of the warmongers-”puppet in play” through the “thunder rolling” and “stink”. He then refers
to the “string” that finally broke to possibly indicate that he finally came to realise the harsh
brutality of war amidst all the misery and pain. John Brown also mentions about the
“cannonball” that “blew” his eyes away to refer to the immense damage (pain and agony)
that the false romanticisation of war causes the soldiers, making it tougher to accept the
harsh realities of war.

Even as the poem draws to an end, the readers notice that John’s mother is still struggling to
come to terms with the realities of war. She is still in shock to see John wear the metal
brace, which is symbolic of his broken spirit. The medals that he drops into his mother’s
hands are symbolic of empty tokens of pride as they are of no value to someone who has
witnessed trauma to earn it. The conclusion which depicts soldiers going to fight on the
battlefields to earn and treasure medals and other awards, only to end up losing the thing
that they treasure the most- their life, is powerful as it largely sums up Dylan’s thoughts while
also serving to convince readers of the futility of war.

CONCLUSION:-

From start to finish the readers notice that Dylan takes an organised approach to beautifully
elucidate his deep rooted feelings of pacifism while highlighting the themes of false
romanticisation of war, nationalism and jingoism and takes the readers through a
rollercoaster of emotions of pride, happiness, guilt, pain and agony.