In the song “The Death of Emmett Till”, by Bob Dylan, the
main statis argument is evaluation and action. Throughout the song Dylan
heavily criticizes his society and what is injustices are allowed to go
unanswered. He goes into extreme details of the cruel murder of Emmett Till
invoking deep thought and emotion from the audience as they think of an
innocent child killed “just for the fun of killing him.” Dylan speaks of his
own personal disgust with the subject and in his country as he “could not bear
to see the smiling brothers walking down the courthouse stairs.” He acts his audience
to look within themselves and to be the change in their own society as they
cannot sit around and let such injustices be continued and go answered. He
inspires actions with the last two verses, singing, “If you can't speak out
against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust, Your eyes are filled with
dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust. Your arms and legs they must be
in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow, For you let this
human race fall down so God-awful low! This song is just a reminder to remind
your fellow man that this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed
Ku Klux Klan. But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could
give, We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live.”
- Gabriella Boozer
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