Discuss John Brown as an anti-war lyric.

The song “John Brown” was written by Bob Dylan. He is an American singer, song writer, artist
and writer. His lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. In 2016
he received the Nobel Prize for literature “for creating new poetic expressions within the great American song
tradition.” John Brown is an anti-war lyric which highlights the toll war takes on young men who are treated
merely as cannon fodder by the warmongering rulers.

John Brown is a handsome young man, who, attracted by the machismo surrounding war, goes
off to fight on a foreign shore. His mama is very proud of him. She instructs her son to follow the instructions of
his captain without fail. She is overjoyed by the idea of her son holding a gun in his hand. She happily says to
her son “lots of medals you will get/ And we’ll put them on the wall when you come home,” completely
neglecting the darker side of war. She is attracted by the chivalry and charisma war projects forgetting the
deepest wounds and scars it leaves behind. After sending John Brown, she remains happily at home bragging
about her son to her neighbours whenever she receives a letter from him.

The contrast starts rolling out in the fifth stanza when the letters cease to come. At last after
about ten months Brown’s mother receives a letter. She becomes over excited to meet her son. When she meets
him, she finds his face blown up and his hand blown off. In addition to that he “wore a metal brace around his
waist” to support himself. John brown, once “straight and tall” is now not able to stand without a metal brace.
His mother is not even able to recognize him. On seeing the pitiable situation of her son, she becomes heart-
broken and enquires him the things happened in the battlefield.

John Brown elaborates to his mother the problems he faced in the battlefield. He is “a-tryin’ to
kill somebody or die tryin’.” The opponent soldier looks not like an enemy to him but as an innocent fellow
human being like himself. He realizes the fact of being “just a puppet in a play.” But it is too late for him to
realize this fact. Unexpectedly a cannon ball attacks him so he becomes terribly wounded and so he is sent back
home. The explanation she gets from her son acts as an eye-opener for her. So far she has thought war to be
attached with patriotism and chivalry. But now she understands the brutality of war. John Brown then drops the
medals he has received into his mother’s hand and walks away with the help of the metal brace.

Thus by showing the life of John Brown as a soldier, Dylan clearly builds a bridge between
fancy and reality. He questions the nature of war and shows that there is no nobility in warfare, strengthening
the idea of pacifism. He shows that militarism can never bring solution to the problems present in the society.
He breaks the myth of heroism and patriotism attached with warfare by mentioning the fatality and futility of
war. Through this song, Dylan tries to make the people understand the negative aspects of war.

STYLE

*Third person narration is used.

* Form of extended sections of dialogues between John and his mother

*Consist of 12 four line stanzas with one- line stanzas inserted after the fourth, seventh, and tenth stanza.

*written in a manner imitating the traditional folk ballad.

*The stanzas rhyme ABCB/four beat line with an irregular number of unstressed syllables.