"Born in the U.S.A. Anti-War
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- Date Submitted: 01/31/2011 09:19 PM
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Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in The U.S.A.”
When Springsteen sat down to write his hit “Born in The U.S.A., he had a whole different set of ideas for the song than Reagan did when he used it as his campaign song. The song begins by telling the story of a man who was “born down in a dead man town” (Line 1), and goes on to fight in the Vietnam War. This song reflects on a time period when the United States was in the thick of Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of young man were going oversees to fight. There are some very obvious implications of an anti-war theme throughout the song, which just tops off the irony behind Reagan’s campaign song. “Born in The U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen is an anti-war statement because he uses birth, life, and death to illustrate the negative morality behind war and how negatively it impacts society.
He opens the song with a description of his hometown that he grew up in. He does not speak well of it, saying things like “The first kick I took was when I hit the ground/You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much” (Line 2-3). These lines imply that he had an unhappy childhood that was possibly impoverished. This could have possibly led to the reason he was sent to war. The next verse goes “Got in a little hometown jam/So they put a rifle in my hand/Sent me off to a foreign land” (Line 7-9). In the 60’s, if you were tried and found guilty for certain crimes, you had to option to go to war rather than serve time in prison. This is true for other time periods, however the song is based in the 60’s/ Springsteen relates events from his childhood directly to the reason he went to war, offering the idea that he may not be too fond of it.
Springsteen refers to the Vietnamese as the “yellow man” in line 10. As far as anyone knows, Springsteen was no racist. This leads us to believe that he was using it in a sarcastic manner. He is simply recalling the fact that many Americans at the time were racist towards some Vietnamese, if not...
When Springsteen sat down to write his hit “Born in The U.S.A., he had a whole different set of ideas for the song than Reagan did when he used it as his campaign song. The song begins by telling the story of a man who was “born down in a dead man town” (Line 1), and goes on to fight in the Vietnam War. This song reflects on a time period when the United States was in the thick of Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of young man were going oversees to fight. There are some very obvious implications of an anti-war theme throughout the song, which just tops off the irony behind Reagan’s campaign song. “Born in The U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen is an anti-war statement because he uses birth, life, and death to illustrate the negative morality behind war and how negatively it impacts society.
He opens the song with a description of his hometown that he grew up in. He does not speak well of it, saying things like “The first kick I took was when I hit the ground/You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much” (Line 2-3). These lines imply that he had an unhappy childhood that was possibly impoverished. This could have possibly led to the reason he was sent to war. The next verse goes “Got in a little hometown jam/So they put a rifle in my hand/Sent me off to a foreign land” (Line 7-9). In the 60’s, if you were tried and found guilty for certain crimes, you had to option to go to war rather than serve time in prison. This is true for other time periods, however the song is based in the 60’s/ Springsteen relates events from his childhood directly to the reason he went to war, offering the idea that he may not be too fond of it.
Springsteen refers to the Vietnamese as the “yellow man” in line 10. As far as anyone knows, Springsteen was no racist. This leads us to believe that he was using it in a sarcastic manner. He is simply recalling the fact that many Americans at the time were racist towards some Vietnamese, if not...