NCHS AP English Language

Ch3 Bob Dylan Essay by Emily Rew

Bob Dylan expresses through his lyrics in "Only a Pawn in Their ," that Byron de la Beckwith, a poor white southerner who killed NAACP organizer Medgar Evers was only an extension of a higher power and can't be blamed. He then proceeds to give examples of the combination of forces such as indocrinationg and status anxiety that would give Beckwith "bad moral luck" and cause him to be only a pawn. The author uses as a main concluding point that if "we plead innocene and shift blame onto Byron de la Beckwith, we play right into the hands of the Southern white elite by ignoring the bishop, the castle, and the knight, but attacking the pawn." This is a faulty statement.
A person should not be "let off the hook" if they have a "bad moral luck." This includes those under indocrination or those with bad backgrounds or family situations. Even though Beckwith may have been brainwashed by the White of the South, in the end his hand was the one who pulled the trigger that killed Medgar Evers. Like Aristotle says, ' people are responsible even if they are ignorant of the general principles." He hits right on the point with this statement because it says that everyone has a free will to choose to be immoral or overcome the obstacles that are presented to them. Beckwith was not in a life-death situation like the soldiers under and therefore was not robbed of his free will.
This situation can be compared to the war in the MIddle East and the ist ings. Both Beckwith and the ists were being indocrinated by a higher power to commit immoral crimes against human beings. The United States was not going to let the ists that partook in the ing incidents of 9/11 and in other countries go free just because there was a higher power that controlled them. This is not to say that the cause of the individual crime before further steps can be taken. The higher power that brainwashed the ists is being taken care of right now in the MIddle East. So to, the White that influenced Beckwith was reformed by the Civil Rights Movement and engendered immoral acts such as the of Medgar Evers. When it comes to it, everyone is morally responsible for their behavior unless they are in a life-death situation or are mentally incapable. If everyone was always pointing fingers, there would be no resolution.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 8:03 AM