Will The Wind Ever Stop Blowing?

Bob Dylan is uncharacteristically optimistic in "Blowin' in The Wind", when expressing that everyone in should be allowed freedom for their existence-especially African Americans- but the somber mood rolls in when he points out that obtaining such rights can't be done with the excessive ignorance to their oppression. Dylan continues to beg the question, of how society is going to progress to give this basic human right, if they can't even put an end to what seems like an everlasting war. Sadly people in positions of power are not only busy ignoring the treatment of their own citizens, but the amount of death and destruction their causing for almost no reason at all. 

 The lines that begin the song pose a couple of questions, part of several in the song that routinely can't be answered,"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 ask how much progression what one must make, in order for them to be complete, or in the dove's case of symbolization, how much long must war go on for, until there is finally peace. The second stanza of this song may have the most prominent lyrics, that go as such "Yes, and how many years can some people exist/Before they're allowed to be free?/Yes, and how many can a man turn his head/And pretend that he just doesn't", they indicate that African-American people having existed forever, have still not gotten the basic right to freedom, but in the following stanza, the reason for such is given. As the song is finalized with these somber lines, "Yes, 'n' how many years must one man have/Before he can hear people cry?/Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows/That too many people have died?", noting that no matter how many unfortunate events happen, it is going to take a lot of suffering from the people for any person in a position of power to give them even some form of thought or attention. Many answers need to be given to the endless amount of questions that Dylan is asking, yet he always responds with, "The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind//The answer is blowing in the wind", because the main point to this song, is that they're either indeterminate, or non-existent, and will be for a long time.

Works Cited:

genius.com, Blowin' In The Wind, https://genius.com/Bob-dylan-blowin-in-the-wind-lyrics