The Message in Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin
Uploaded by spootyhead on Mar 20, 2007
The Political Message in Bob Dylan's “The Times They Are A-Changin”
The events of the past continue to influence and shape the present and the future, particularly the decade of the 1960’s, which was a time often called the “decade of discontent” because of demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Americans were divided between patriotism and the desire for peace. Some agreed with President Johnson’s involvement in Vietnam for the common goal of eliminating communism, others became entranced in the peace movements that usually involved mass protests. For those who protested our involvement in the longest war we ever took part in, songs of the times were an inspiration, particularly songs of Bob Dylan, whose influential songs often protested what many considered the wrongs of society. “The Times Are A-Changin,” one of Dylan’s biggest hits that expressed the feelings of the younger generation, has been called an “anthem for the protest movement” (D&S, p.899).
The 1960’s represent a time when the youth were no longer complacent with their role in society, it was a time of revolutionary change in thinking and lifestyle from the 1950’s, and those ideas continue to evolve today.
The major issue engulfing the 1960’s was the Vietnam War. The country of Vietnam was divided into two parts: the Communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (commonly called North Bietnam) and the noncommunist Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). North Vietnamese and Communist-trained South Vietnamese rebels sought to overthrow the government of South Vietnam and reunite the country. The United States became involved in 1964, when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S. destroyer Maddox, which was monitoring off the coast of Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although there is discrepancy over whether this event actually occurred, it was because of this event that President Johnson ordered air strikes against North Vietnam. At this point, we became heavily involved in the war (www.vwip.org).
The fighting in Vietnam was finally ended in 1975 after a devastating defeat for South Vietnam and the United States. The Vietnam War was enormously destructive with military deaths reaching over a million. The U.S. role in the war became one of the most debated issues in the nation’s history....