The Vietnam War was called "The Living Room War" because, for the first time, families could sit down and watch footage of the war showing events almost as they were happening. This is the specific context of
"Breakfast where the news is read. / Television, children fed…"
A family is reading about the war in the newspaper during breakfast and watching the war on TV and so children are "fed" the images of war and bloodshed in their own homes (perhaps as they literally eat meals simultaneously).
"The Unknown Soldier"'s original sense is an American soldier who died in World War I (later, other unknown soldiers were chosen from other wars) and whose remains are memorialized in Washington as a symbol for all of the unknown, and unheralded, casualties of America's wars.
Missing from these lyrics: When the drill call "Present arms!" ends, we hear a round of gunshots, sounding like a firing squad. The soldiers who are ready for war are mown down by gunfire at a moment that new soldier join the military.
When the song concludes, at an increasing tempo, with the words, "It's all over / war is over," the implication is that the war is over FOR the unknown soldier, who is dead. The war is not actually over, and more soldiers will die.
Morrison is, characteristically, subverting the establishment view here. Our response to the unknown soldier should not be one of pride for his sacrifice, but rather sympathy for his loss and an overwhelming desire to prevent this from happening. Thus, while the original memorialized Unknown Soldier responds to war and loss with positive sentiment, Morrison sees it as a horrible eventuality to prevent. Not incidentally, Morrison's father was an admiral in the US Navy, and this song is part of a generational rebellion against the generation before.
The ideas in this song are quite similar to those in Dalton Trumbo's "Johnny Got His Gun," whose title ALSO uses language previously used to glorify war in a work that emphasizes the horror of war by examining the case of one tragic casualty. (Though in Trumbo's work, perhaps more horribly, the casualty is alive but catastrophically disabled.)
The Vietnam War was called "The Living Room War" because, for the first time, families could sit down and watch footage of the war showing events almost as they were happening. This is the specific context of
"Breakfast where the news is read. / Television, children fed…"
A family is reading about the war in the newspaper during breakfast and watching the war on TV and so children are "fed" the images of war and bloodshed in their own homes (perhaps as they literally eat meals simultaneously).
"The Unknown Soldier"'s original sense is an American soldier who died in World War I (later, other unknown soldiers were chosen from other wars) and whose remains are memorialized in Washington as a symbol for all of the unknown, and unheralded, casualties of America's wars.
Missing from these lyrics: When the drill call "Present arms!" ends, we hear a round of gunshots, sounding like a firing squad. The soldiers who are ready for war are mown down by gunfire at a moment that new soldier join the military.
When the song concludes, at an increasing tempo, with the words, "It's all over / war is over," the implication is that the war is over FOR the unknown soldier, who is dead. The war is not actually over, and more soldiers will die.
Morrison is, characteristically, subverting the establishment view here. Our response to the unknown soldier should not be one of pride for his sacrifice, but rather sympathy for his loss and an overwhelming desire to prevent this from happening. Thus, while the original memorialized Unknown Soldier responds to war and loss with positive sentiment, Morrison sees it as a horrible eventuality to prevent. Not incidentally, Morrison's father was an admiral in the US Navy, and this song is part of a generational rebellion against the generation before.
The ideas in this song are quite similar to those in Dalton Trumbo's "Johnny Got His Gun," whose title ALSO uses language previously used to glorify war in a work that emphasizes the horror of war by examining the case of one tragic casualty. (Though in Trumbo's work, perhaps more horribly, the casualty is alive but catastrophically disabled.)
@rikdad great explanation and interpretation
@rikdad great explanation and interpretation