Bob Dylan Only A Pawn In Their Game Essay

During the height of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, already-renowned songwriter Bob Dylan composed one of his most prominent works, called “Only a Pawn in Their Game”, as both a memorial and personal commentary on racial discrimination and victimization. As he wrote the lyrics, the communities of African-Americans were steamed over the violent death of one of their activists, Medgar Evers, by a gunman. Dylan composed his song to both pay tribute to Evers, but also to call out the act itself, attempting to signify that the killer themselves was also a victim, the true guilt belonging to the white elite, driving people like the gunman to commit acts against the growing Movement. To have a song such as “Only a Pawn in Their Game” to be as famous as it was/is, there must follow three key factors: a strong theme, especially with a contemporary subject, to

In the case of Dylan and “Only a Pawn in Their Game”, the lyrics’ background was molded around the then-ongoing Civil Rights Movement and the growing tensions between white and African-American communities. Due to Dylan’s own strong feelings regarding the whole affair, he chose to put said emotional build-up into a form that everyone, both activist, and bigot, could understand and memorialize. Through the song’s lyrics, as noted by reviewer Tony Attwood, Dylan expressed his disdain for the treatment of African-Americans, but also of the poor and middle-class white populations as well, intent on laying the common ground for the victimized people of one nation. Of course, with such a critical first showing, taking place at the 1963 March on Washington, it was hard to imagine that Dylan inflamed some tempers, especially in the South, where the discrimination against African-Americans was deeper and harder than almost anywhere