San Trinh

Intro To College Writing

"Off the Shelf" and "Drifter's Escape” Draft 1

The song "Drifter's Escape" by Bob Dylan and The short stories "Off the Shelf" by Patti

Smith are both allegorical in their own way. While the story might be different, they of both does

go to the same direction, when it’s somewhat ended in justice for the oppressed . With Smith's

semi-autobiographical tale about her childhood of poverty leaded to shoplifting; ending with the

main character or in this case - the author - after some troubling got rewarded the World Book

Encyclopedia, Volume I. Dylan’s song tell the story about a courtroom drama, as the drifter was

about to get executed, “a bolt of lightning struck the courthouse out of shape” and free him to

escape. Both works use coded language and metaphor to expose the inhumane forces that seek to

crush the freedom of human spirit; one is the freedom of knowledge and the other is the actual

freedom to live.

In "Off the Shelf," the department store can be seen as an example of cooperation -

government overcharging educations and putting price on books that people can’t afford it's like

taking away the freedom to knowledge that we all should have access equally. The store

detective can be the image of blockage, denial of knowledge to the common people. The young

Patti's desire for the encyclopedia represented every desire of knowledge and her poorness
remind us of reality that not everyone is able to afford the luxury of education and can have the

proper access to knowledge as we all deserve.

This tension between individuality and oppressive conformity parallels the allegory in

"Drifter's Escape." The courtroom setting represents the rigidity of society's rules and

expectations, with the judge figure stating that you must die as “You fail to understand” even if

you do not know what have you done wrong. The drifter's "crime" is merely living freely by his

own code, rejecting living the ordinary roles and restrictions. How can wandering from places to

places a crime? Just because he don’t live by society’s rules he’s considered a criminal? Such

question began to asked themselves when I finished readying the lyrics of the tune. We can see

through Dylan’s point of view about people being chained to society’s self-created rules,

dictating right and wrong in the way of living, judging people that don’t fit that “box of

characters”.

From both story we can tell society have built in it a certain blockage that preventing the

people from freely expressing themself and have equal right to be themself, to do what they

want, to learn what they want and have a better life. Isn't that the meaning of a society? To

support and nurturing each other, not to judge each other differences and taking advantage of the

less fortunate.

While no direct evidence suggests one text influenced the other, the allegorical

resonances between "Off the Shelf" and "Drifter's Escape" are profound. Both have show their

side of the story and their point of view about major issues in our society, and although both

ended with a happy ending there are still much bigger question for us to answer, what can we do
as an individual to break the chains, to fix these “courtroom” rules to build a better place for

generations to come.