During the second half of the 1960s a growing number of young Americans called hippies rejected traditional middle-class values. They believed love offered a better solution to America’s problems than war. Hippies were convinced that this cultural transformation could only be accomplished by a new alternative lifestyle or counterculture. Scott McKenzie’s 1967 hit song “San Franciso (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” ENCAPSULATES or concisely expresses the counterculture’s core values. Let’s use key SAT vocabulary words to analyze the song.
ADHERE – The song’s opening lyrics urge everyone going to San Franciso to “be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.” ADHERING or faithfully following this advice was not a matter of personal style or taste. Flowers represented the counterculture’s central image. Their fragile beauty symbolized a positive affirmation of the wonder of life and thus a non-violent rejection of the violence and destruction caused by the ongoing Vietnam War.
POPULATED – Popularly known as “flower children,” the hippies who arrived in San Francisco headed directly to Haight-Asbury, a neighborhood that became the undisputed center of the 1967 “Summer of Love.” POPULATED or filled with thousands of “gentle people,” Haight-Asbury provided a vibrant laboratory for a “love-in” based upon mutual acceptance and communal living.
REPUDIATE – Raised in the most prosperous society the world had known, hippies nonetheless REPUDIATED or rejected middle-class values of hard work, neat appearance, and economic success. Instead, hippies confidently proclaimed that they formed a “new generation with a new explanation.”
ESCHEWED – The hippies “new explanation” ESCHEWED or deliberately avoided suburban America’s carefree materialism and mindless conformity. Instead, hippies embraced love, empathy, and “being groovy.” A “groovy” person would value spiritual exploration and sexual liberation while ESCHEWING the greed spawned by America’s competitive 9-to-5 corporate lifestyle.
EPHEMERAL – The flower children who arrived in San Francisco wearing flowers in their hair believed that their “new explanation” would transform America. But flowers are inherently EPHEMERAL or brief. The de-escalation of American fighting in Vietnam and the economic recession caused by the 1973 Arab oil embargo sapped the energy from the once vibrant counterculture. As the counterculture faded a cultural backlash sparked a conservative revival that played a key role in electing Ronald Reagan in 1980.
ENCAPSULATE – to express the main points or core message in a concise way
ADHERE – to faithfully follow
POPULATED – to be filled with people or objects
REPUDIATE – to reject and refuse to accept
ESCHEW – to deliberately avoid; shun; stay away from
EPHEMERAL – temporary; very brief