UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology SUMMER 2024 - Flipbook - Page 42
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
too, has used the song as protest, quietly adding it to set
lists (and even some of his Broadway-residency concerts)
during times of political unrest.
If you’ve road-tripped across the United States recently,
chances are you’ve seen men walking along highways.
Drive through any city at the right time of day and you’ll
see either shelter or food bank lines “stretching around
the corner.” Cars and RVs line miles of street parking,
some with folks sitting between vehicles on lawn chairs.
Springsteen wrote, “Welcome to the new world order,”
likely pulling the last three words directly from George
H. W. Bush’s 1990 address before a joint session of
Congress on the Persian Gulf Con昀氀ict, in which he
quoted Winston Churchill when he pledged to “protect
the weak against the strong.” Nearly 30 years since
“The Ghost of Tom Joad” was released, families and
individuals are still sleeping in their cars with the latest
swell in numbers driven by many personal economic
collapses during the pandemic. In a country where many
are trying to make sense of a government at political
odds with itself and a post-pandemic era in which
folks continue to feel isolated, the destitution of those
marginalized by poverty can be read into “The Ghost of
Tom Joad” as if it were written today rather than decades
ago.
What can be read as the song’s message aside,
Springsteen does not tell the reader/listener how to feel
or what to read into these lines, but rather shows through
nouns, through images. A line that has always stood out
to me is, “You got a hole in your belly and a gun in your
hand.” Hunger and the need for protection... Maslow’s
Hierarchy places both food and shelter at the base level,
in “physiological needs.” Also on that level of needs is
sleep, something going without food and security makes
di昀케cult, regardless of “sleeping on a pillow of solid rock.”
What Springsteen has done with this song is create a
lyrical painting of what he saw in the world, approaching
the content objectively and without pointing 昀椀ngers.
With the song, he has built a 昀椀gurative camp昀椀re, and it is
up to each of us to determine individually if we will join
or walk away. Essentially, a community has been built
around this camp昀椀re, around this song, and the narrative
the community carries forward breathes light into the
corner where this conversation had been hidden and
allows for healing.
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And so, the song fosters hope. In the penultimate
stanza, Tom Joad addresses his mother, says, “Look in
their eyes, Ma, and you’ll see me,” of any hardship... of
all too common “normals” in daily life for many. If Joad
represents the common man, then the progression of
“I’m sitting down here in the camp昀椀re light / searching
for the ghost of Tom Joad” to “I’m sitting down here in
the camp昀椀re light / waiting on the ghost of Tom Joad”
to “I’m sitting down here in the camp昀椀re light / with the
ghost of old Tom Joad” could be read as the speaker
seeking and 昀椀nding community, companionship, and
hope as they attempt to regain a foothold. It could
also be read as the speaker wanting to help those less
fortunate and so seeking and 昀椀nding those in need. Or,
like so many great poems, it could be both, intentionally
worded to resonate for all seeking change, so they might
sing, might pass on this ballad to the next generation. ☐
Contributed by: Ciara Shuttleworth
Ciara Shuttleworth is an alumnus of the prestigious San Francisco
Art Institute. She has worked for three prominent San Francisco fine
art galleries. Additionally, she has provided art consulting for private
and corporate collections, including Google. She is also a published
writer with works in the Norton Introduction to Literature and The
New Yorker. Her most recent book is the poetry collection, Rabbit
Heart.
Cover Photograph Credit:
Bruce Springsteen backstage at Madison Square Garden.
Photographed by Robin Takami.