Field Trip To Woodstock

In English class, we have been studying how author’s purpose, social commentary, and themes directly relate to the Woodstock era music of the 1960′s. To further enhance our knowledge of events that occurred in the 60′s, our class took a field trip to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, NY; the original site of the famous three day concert held in 1969.

One theme of the 1960′s was a movement that involved Civil Rights for African-Americans, along with equal rights for women that could only be achieved with perseverance. Another theme was that war could not be avoided without protesting the government. However, the major theme that can be concluded  is that peace and love could only be reached by giving everyone the same freedoms, and treating everyone equally. I feel that this message is very powerful because of how much truth it still holds today. With human rights struggles that occur in today’s society, along with American’s questioning their freedoms, you have to wonder how long it will be before we have a peace in The United States.

Through the amount of study we have done in class on Woodstock, and the field trip, I was able to learn some new information on author’s purpose and social commentary. For example, I learned that is not unusual for 1960′s songwriters to be very blunt on how they express social issues in their work. Songs such as “Vietnam Song” by Country Joe and the Fish, “Uncle Sam Blues” by Jefferson Airplane, and “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival are all very clear with their messages. These songs are all anti-war and very clearly show that opinion.

Personally, I feel that this whole Woodstock experience has inspired me a lot more than I ever expected. The reason I feel this way is that the youth today is very similar to the hippies in the 1960′s. The hippies were a generation than “rebelled” against the older generation because of conflicting opinions. Today I feel that the younger generation is more open minded then the older generation, causing different opinions. I also feel that in general, America’s youth feel misunderstood by the older generations. The fact that we are unafraid to express ourselves is very inspiring, and this idea originated with the hippies. For this, I feel that this lesson was very beneficial for me as a person. Aside from the field trip being phenomenal. I would definitely recommend the trip again, it is an experience that I probably will never forget!