Intuition into Action
...hension if a young man were to resist being drafted or joining the military. In other words Dylan is saying that if you don’t join the military…you fail and the government will come around and punish you (i.e. “you’re gonna get hit”). Bob Dylan in essence is mocking the government’s valiant effort to recruit and draft the youth, as well as its promotion of war in Vietnam. It becomes obvious that Dylan is directing his words of advice to the youth by his use of “look out kid,” throughout the entire song (9). He is speaking down to the future generation, the youth culture, warning them of the government’s intentions and propaganda. This overall theme of Dylan and the anti war sense coincides with the Beat Generation which preceded the writing of his song. The Beat Generation existed as a group of American writers whose works during the 1950’s significantly influenced the cultural transformations of the 1960’s timeframe. The primary writers consisted of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. Their works consisted of authoritarian inquiries and just flat out questioning of status quo and society. The Beat writers were nothing similar to the average, everyday writers of the 1950’s, but went totally against the popular crowd or mainstream society, exploring alternative methods of finding their own identities and different ways of life in general. They found themselves through being different, through being what everyone looked at as weird or just odd. With this established notion of individuality and personal identity resonating from the Beat Generation, it becomes safe to compare and suggest that their writings coincide or had an influential impact on the song writing of Bob Dylan. Dylan’s lyrical design asks the youth to question, ask, and inquire, in what is going on in their day and age. He doesn’t want to see the youth rest as powerless, and as robots that listen and absorb every word the government authority has to say. Just as the Beat Generation took a stand during their time and used their own personal intuition to reveal their thoughts and feelings, Bob Dylan attempts to transfer the same ideology of personal intuition to the youth of the 60’s counterculture. The idea of political opposition becomes reflected in Dylan’s song writing, where it was first seen during the Beat Generation. The second stanza in Dylan’s song reads “Maggie comes fleet foot face full of black soot,” illustrating an average American worker, and also says “watch the plain clothes,” again describing the blue collar worker of American society (19-20, 34). This signifies the life of the average American worker going with the flow of “good” American values, never in the wrong, always working hard for their country. Dylan also says “the phone’s tapped anyway…Orders form the D.A. look out kid don’t matter what you did walk on your tip toes don’t try “No Doz,” speaking in sarcasm of how the average American person has to walk on egg shells when at work or during life in general (19-30). The significance of these lines stands as Dylan’s attempt to finally show and reveal to people that they are living in constant fear and completely in line with whatever the government has to say. Dylan attempts to expose the true value and power of the human spirit, and that there is power in numbers. The government is not always the answer to every problem, and it is not always right. I believe Dylan is conveying the fact that in order to have an effective individualized, democratic society, people must come together with their common opinions and goals in order to achieve what they want. The entire idea of questioning authority and social awareness becomes the primary backbone to the entire movement for which Dylan supports and lyrically illustrates. In essence, Dylan suggests the youth breakaway from social norms, and start living the way they want, that they have a choice, as well as a voice in American politics and society. Expanding on the issue of choice and intuition, Dylan explores many controversial topics during the 1960’s, which includes the use of recreational drugs. The first two lines of the song read “Johnny’s in the basement mixing up the medicine,” which refers to a young man in the process of abusing recreational drugs, LSD as an example (1-2). The use of recreational drugs during the 60’s was a huge issue at hand, which is part of the reason as to why Dylan places this line at the very beginning. Drugs were such a large societal issue, that Dylan used it to describe the time frame. Dylan’s use of imagery in this line directs the listener/reader to see how blunt and to the point he is, speaking of reality and controversial issues in a leisurely manner, within a folk song. Dylan throws the issue out there, at the very beginning, hitting the listener right in the face, possibly catching them off guard in a sense exposing his raw and activist style of lyrical composition and artistry. In fact, the majority of the first stanza is comprised of drug use and addiction. Reasoning for this type of structure may be according to the style of case and point. In other words, Dylan initially brings up the issue of drugs and addiction and how those feelings can develop exponentially, only to show resolution in the following stanza, where he introduces the power of personal choice. Dylan sings “look out kid it’s somethin’ you did God knows when but you’re doin’ it again,” allowing the issue of drug addiction to emerge within the song lyrics, which acts as the case in this situation (9-12). Furthermore, Dylan illustrates the unconscious desire that drugs impose on the body once a person starts using drugs. Dylan emphasizes the severity of how drugs can transform life, because the drugs themselves take on a life of their own once they exist within the person. Dylan’s utilization of the drug issue reveals how aware he is of current social issues, and what the youth culture is vulnerable to, and wants them to be aware of. Dylan is in a sense warning the youth culture of the drug use problem, and how fast addiction can follow the very first use of recreational drugs such as LSD. I believe the significance of this subject stems from the overall theme of personal intuition once again. In other words, Dylan first talks about the drug addiction issue, then following that stanza states “you don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows,...