Blowin' in the Wind

Blowin’ in the Wind- Bob Dylan 

“Blowin’ in the Wind” is a song by Bob Dylan where Dylan sings a series of hypothetical questions in the theme of civil rights.  He starts off by singing “How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail, before she sleeps in the sand?".  These hypotheticals are strong for the opening two lines because they represent how far people have come in their protest, and how hard they have worked (like in the Civil Rights Movement), and the questions still end with “before you call him a man” and “before she sleeps in the sand”.  The next lyric is more explicit, asking “Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned?".  This line represents the constant violence going on in protest, and also in war.  How long must it go on before we do something to stop the casualties?  He responds to these questions with the chorus “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.  The answer is blowing in the wind". This is Bob Dylan’s way of saying that he does not know the answers, but they are “blowing in the wind”.  Moving on to the next verse, Dylan says “Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist, before it is washed to the sea?  Yes, and how many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free?  Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn't see?".  This verse represents all the oppression that African Americans were, and still are faced with.  Mountains stand tall, but eventually they can be washed away.  The next line is straight to the point; Black people were not new to this country in the 1960s, so was it taking them so long to be completely free?  That is a question that can still be asked.  to end the verse, Dylan asks bystanders why they play blind and don’t take a stand against these injustices.  He follows this again with the chorus, stating the answers are “blowing in the wind”.  In the last verse, Dylan sings “Yes, and how many times must a man look up, before he can see the sky?  Yes, and how many ears must one man have, before he can hear people cry?  Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows, that too many people have died?”.  In this verse, Bob Dylan is basically asking when is enough enough? The sky represents freedom, so how many times must people keep on fighting for that freedom?  Also, the ears reference is the same as the turning their heads reference.  Lastly, he asks how many people must die before too many people die?  He ends the song by once again, saying the answers are “blowing in the wind”.