Unit 9: Contemporary America
United/Divided

“Born in the U.S.A.”

Bruce Springsteen, 1984
Hit rock song describing the non-heroic return of a Vietnam vet.

Lesson ideas

Tim Hahn , 2004 NEH Teacher Institute

Summary

While the mood of this tune at first hearing seems upbeat in a rebellious sort of way, the lyrical content is pretty rough stuff. Most students below high-school age would probably lack the background and maturity to grapple with the dark psychological portrait this song presents. When we listen to this bitter anthem, we are confronted with the story of one young man born and lost in the USA. In the end, we find ourselves having to form difficult questions that our antihero never seems to ask himself.

Discussion focus questions

• How does the narrator see himself?
• Who is he talking to? Does that matter to him?
• What is he looking for? What does he really need?
• Does he want or deserve our sympathy?

Classroom activities

• Each student creates a pie chart that analyzes our narrator’s despair. Area values are assigned to each of the following sources of his desperate feelings:

  • personal circumstances

  • personal choices and actions

  • experiences in Vietnam

  • hometown response when he returned from service

• Students then write a paragraph providing a rationale defending their choices and debate among themselves.
• How common was this man’s experience? Students research the socio-economic status of Vietnam vets as compared to the general population. What percentage of veterans found secure employment or completed a college degree program? What opportunities were made available to returning veterans?
• Compare the narrator’s experience to that of John Kerry or George W. Bush during the Vietnam War. Rewrite one line of the song to in the voice of a more privileged young man.
• Students use drama to recreate the scenes described in the third verse when the man is looking for a job and assistance. Discuss probable endings to the unfinished lines.
• Write a verse to a song called “Born in Vietnam.” How would the experience of a common Vietnamese soldier have compared to that of our narrator?
• Revisit the emotional imagery in the first verse. Write a paragraph describing this man’s family and childhood in a biographical style.