“How does the song “Like a Rolling Stone” explore issues related to society”

The song “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan explores the dangers of living pointlessly through the use of a fictional character who has unexpectedly fallen from a high social status. Bob Dylan makes use of various literary features to show the superficiality of the protagonist, hence informing the audience of the significance of thoroughly living their life. In doing so, he also attempts to show the pretentious nature of the society by portraying how one could become so pointless without social power and wealth.

The superficial nature of the protagonist is present throughout the song to emphasize her emptiness and incapability with the absence of her social power and wealth. The chorus of this song, “Like a Rolling Stone”, reminds us that the protagonist is like a rolling stone in that she has “no direction home” and her life is going downhill ever since she has fallen from such high social status. Her lack of direction home is also implied by the fact that she has never been taught “how to live out on the street”, suggesting how she is incapable of doing something on her own without the reliance on her wealth, Furthermore, her superficiality is reinforced by her action of almost detaching herself from the reality in order to entertain herself. The imagery of jugglers and the clowns doing the “tricks” for her suggests how she uses her power and wealth to be entertained, indicating the lack of independence and desire in her life. The fact that she is paying for her entertainment simply tells us that she is pretending to be living her magnificent life as everything around her is only driven by her wealth, indicating her lack of existence in the sense that her wealth is living her life rather than herself. Such superficial life she had been living is the sole cause of being “like a complete unknown” as she never had to do something by her own or take responsibility for her actions, whereas now, given the absence of her power to manipulate her surroundings, she has to be on her own which she never has been.

The two extremes in the society, the rich and the poor, are used to show the pretentious nature of the society through the use of the protagonist whose life is solely determined by her possession of social wealth. The values often associated with society, such as peace and harmony, are simply a thin cover of the reality where those in power tend to manipulate the rest for their own benefits. As implied by the comparison between the protagonist and the “Princess and all the pretty people”, princess and all the pretty people are also the ones with power, and the fact “they’re all drinking, thinking that they’ve got it made” suggests that they are on the same pathway as the protagonist, therefore will eventually lose their wealth. Having already fallen from a position of high power, the protagonist is almost powerless and hopeless, just like how all the common people are in the society. This idea of power determining one’s position in the society shows that even the ones in power can suddenly turn into a hopeless, powerless people, indicating the superficial nature of not only the ones in power but also the society where social wealth and power are the only determinants of how one is perceived.

Bob Dylan’s use of literary devices has allowed the audience to understand the superficiality of the protagonist of the song, and therefore explore the pretentious nature of the society due to the manipulation of power by those in power. Symbolism of rolling stone depicts protagonist’s constant seeking of home, and this idea of settling down is reinforced by the proverb “a rolling stone gathers no moss” in that people like the protagonist avoid responsibilities, hence emphasizing the importance of settling in one place to thoroughly live one’s life.

Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid/Society Blues

To briefly summarize the context, John Birch Society is an advocacy group supporting anti-communism and limited government intervention/involvement. In this song, Dylan attempts to show the extreme nature of certain people when it comes down to controversial issues like communism. Throughout the entire song, Bob Dylan makes use of various imageries and allusion to other events/figures to further develop the sense of craziness. These are some of the key imagery/allusion

– allusion to Hitler : this allusion is significant in the sense that people are simply so obsessed with finding Communists that all the terrible things that Hitler has done is almost forgiven. This shows us how people have lost their common sense.

– 5th verse : This verse mainly deals with the act of looking for Communists around. However, lines like “I even looked deep down inside my toilet bowl” further enhance the idea of loss of common sense as we can easily imagine the act of looking down the toilet bowl” and interpret that action as something that a normal person would not do.

– second last verse: There is another allusion to historical figures such as Roosevelt and Lincoln. This simply strengthens the idea that people have gotten so crazy that they are being suspicious of the individuals known to be the least Communist.

Knowing that Bob Dylan in this song focused on issues that have two extreme sides, I feel like Dylan would protest about LGBTQ in the current society. This is mainly because of the presence of individuals who are strongly against others with different opinion on this issue, and the same idea of people going crazy can be used here to show how extreme people against gay rights would go.