Blowin' in the Wind

The speaker of Bob Dylan’s poem does not have a gender or a name, allowing the voice to take on a universal or popular quality. However, the mere presence of the questions gives the speaker some personality and character traits. The speaker is a curious and engaged person. Their questions tell the reader that they are thoughtful and conscious of what is happening in the world. The speaker is not a misanthropic or apathetic person. Instead, they grasp the injustices that permeate the world, and their awareness prompts a series of deep inquiries into the cruelty and inhumanity of the world.

The notable themes of the poem—injustice, brutality, and inhumanity—determine the poem’s weary tone. The speaker sounds sad—they are bringing up longstanding, dispiriting issues. These problems have haunted society for a long time. The words “[h]ow many” start the first lines in Stanzas 1-3. The speaker is tired of the world’s ails. They want them to end, but they do not offer a concrete solution. It is as if they are too tired to provide a specific answer. The pensive tone prohibits a tangible fix. If the speaker gave a tangible, actionable answer, their tone might be less sad and more hopeful. The speaker would know what to do. In the poem, the speaker is not sure what to do. They direct the spotlight onto the wind: The wind, not the speaker, has the answers. Thus, the speaker is also humble. They do not have the solutions to the world’s problems. It is not the speaker that people should consult, it is the wind.

To illustrate the countless issues plaguing the world, the speaker uses figurative language. The words frequently represent something other than their literal meaning. The questions often contain multifaceted symbols. The speaker asks, “How many roads must a man walk down / Before you call him a man?” (Lines 1-2). Humans do not literally have to walk down roads to become people. Roads are a symbol of struggle. So, the poet here asks, how much does someone have to endure before others realize that they are a person and that they should not continually have to confront undue hardship (walk down more roads)?

Lines 3 and 5 of each stanza start, “Yes, ’n’.” The diction—the word choice—reinforces the speaker’s humble, personable persona. They say “yes” as if they are speaking to the reader in an everyday conversation. They use “n” instead of “and” to replicate commonplace conversation. The speaker is not trying to pass themselves off as a highbrow academic. The speaker is a person of the people.

The speaker wonders, “Yes, ’n’ how many seas must a white dove sail / Before she sleeps in the sand?” (Lines 3-4). The white dove commonly symbolizes peace. The need for the dove signals the presence of war. Without war, the dove does not need to “sail” (Line 3). If people are always peaceful, the dove becomes redundant or unnecessary. She does not have to fly: She can retire in the sand. The question in Lines 5-6 also relates to war, with cannonballs symbolizing war. Cannonballs became a part of wars in the 1300s. In Dylan’s time, people have to worry about deadlier weapons, like machine guns, bombs, and weapons of mass destruction. By using cannonballs as a symbol of war, the speaker shows how wars have been around for centuries.

In the last two lines of every stanza, the speaker tells the reader the solution is in the wind. It is as if the wind is a character in the poem. They, the wind, know the answers. As the speaker states, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind / The answer is blowin’ in the wind.” Like the questions, the answer is figurative. Wind stands for the current moment, and it signals constant change. The wind can scatter established configurations and remake them. The wind can blow things away. If people want to knock down the oppression that dominates society, they should align themselves with the wind—with change, with the current cultural moment of activism.

People can block change, so when the speaker asks, “How many years can a mountain exist / Before it’s washed to the sea?” (Lines 9-10), the mountain represents obstruction. If the sea takes it down, it is not destroying a natural wonder but a barrier to progress. The speaker asks, “Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist / Before they’re allowed to be free?” (Lines 11-12). The question is less figurative and more straightforward: How long does a person have to wait before they receive the freedoms and liberties of other people? The next question relates to the prior two questions in Stanza 2, “Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head / Pretending he just doesn’t see?” (Lines 13-14). Returning to figurative language, the speaker calls out those who see these injustices, but do not act. In the 1960s, many Americans were aware of the injustices, and even against them, but comfortable with their own lives and status, they turned a blind eye to the problems. The speaker thus asks how bad things need to get before people stop turning away.

The first question in Stanza 3 carries multiple symbolisms: “How many times must a man look up / Before he can see the sky?” (Lines 17-18). The sky could stand for religion or greater power. Maybe if people stopped thinking of themselves as the center of the universe, the universe could change for the better. Thus, the sky could also stand for progress. They want people to evolve and not perpetuate the same base injustices: They ask people to look up, not down. The speaker then asks, “Yes, ’n’ how many ears must one man have / Before he can hear people cry?” (Lines 19-20). The image—the picture—of a person with multiple ears is somewhat absurd. Then again, echoing the sentiment of the second verse, the speaker asserts that it is equally ridiculous that people ignore and remain so inattentive to the sorrows of others.

The last question has a direct, morose tone. It is as if the speaker waits until the end to explicitly state where the sundry injustices and cruelties lead: death. As the speaker wonders, “Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows / That too many people have died?” (Lines 21-22). Due to wars, inequality, and general oppression, people needlessly die. With a plain, blunt tone, the speaker asks when the death toll will finally become unacceptable.