Napoleon in Rags

The meaning of Napoleon in Rags comes from a Bob Dylan song called Like a Rolling Stone. It's a contender for the best song in history. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine rated it best song of all time declaring, "No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time". I really liked the idea of Napoleon in Rags. I think this character Dylan invented is interesting. Napoleon was a great leader and Dylan describes him wearing cheap clothing. Rags describes clothing that is filthy, used and tattered. There is more going on here, though. The words are also about illusion and understanding, deception and truth. The song repeatedly describes ways in which the woman failed to see what was really going on around her.

Even though Napoleon is wearing a disguise he was in truth a great leader. The disguise allowed him to travel without being attacked. This tactic is used by Dylan also. The Napoleon in Rags concept is a great life lesson to be learned. There's always more going on around us than we realize. Life is like an onion. There are more layers for us to peel back and more truth to discover. There are many of us out there who are like the woman in the song. We fail to see what's really going on around us. When we fail to see something it's our own fault. We need to get to know people. Really know them. If I can use another analogy. We need to be able to see the truth just behind the veil. Sometimes it's a good thing to look around the curtain and see the crew pulling the ropes and adjusting the lights. We enjoy going to the show, but we don't really know what's going on behind the curtain.

People aren't always as they appear on the surface.