How does the poem John Brown bring out the universality of the war
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Answer:
In the song ‘John Brown’, Bob Dylan has expressed his thoughts about war, and its effects on the soldiers.Though he has defended himself by saying that he is not a pacifist and that he has never been one, the song John Brown clearly expresses his disapproval of the same.
The poem focuses on the young man ‘John Brown’ who proudly goes off to war to fulfill his mother’s wishes. John Brown fights the war and meanwhile his mother brags about him to the whole neighbourhood. She receives letters from her son in the beginning and after a while the letters stop. After a gap, she receives a letter asking her to meet her son who is coming home from the war.
The mood of the poem changes when the mother sees her son. She is unable to recognize him at first. His eyes are blown up and he has lost a hand. He is able to stand up because of a metal brace that he wears. He is not able to open his mouth and speak clearly. He breaks his mother’s illusion of war being something glorious when he tells her about her experience. Regardless of what Dylan has said about the poem, this part of the poem paints a rather gruesome picture of war and expresses disapproval of wars in general. John Brown tells his mother that she was acting proud while he was fighting the war because she wasn’t in his shoes.
He tells her that when he got there, he no longer knew what he was doing there. He didn’t understand what purpose he was serving by killing someone. Seeing the enemy at close proximity was the turning point for him. John Brown was shocked to discover that the enemy looked just like him and this shock led to a realization that he was just a pawn fighting a pointless war meant to satisfy somebody’s ego. He felt like a puppet in a play. By the time this realization struck him, a cannonball blew his eyes away. The poet shows us the reality of a battleground and the truth about the condition of the soldiers who do fight a war. The poet seems to be critical of those people who glorify war. Therefore, the poem is predominantly anti-war.
Explanation:
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Explanation:
The war didn't kill him but it has left him hopeless and shattered. He is unable to even gather his strength to speak in an audible and recognizable voice. All these images add up to build the horrifying aspect of war. The universality of this poem lies in the fact that does not refer to any particular war as such.