Why did Bob Dylan write blowin in the wind?

Answer 1

The words of the song are in bold, an explication is in italics after each line.

How many roads must a man walk down,

Before you call him a man? How much experience does it take before a boy becomes a man?

Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail,

Before she sleeps in the sand? The white dove is a symbol of peace, how far must peace be pursued around the globe before it is realized?

Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly,

Before they're forever banned? This is a reiteration of the previous line from the combatant's perspective.

The answer, my friend,

is blowin' in the wind,

The answer is blowin' in the wind. The chorus states a simple metaphorical truth: answers are all around us and easy to perceive if we simply try. They are not always easy to grasp, or to catch hold of much like things cast upon the wind, but not impossible to those committed to it.

How many years can a mountain exist,

Before it's washed to the sea?

Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist

Before they're allowed to be free?

Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,

Pretending he just doesn't see? Where the first stanza was focusing on the relative short duration of human behavior, Dylan looks here at the less mutable, things that at least seem more constant. The solid image of the mountain, juxtaposed with slavery and intolerance, give permanence to these two very human behaviors. This makes them seem less mutable.

The answer, my friend,

is blowin' in the wind,

The answer is blowin' in the wind. While the answers are all around us, in the face of such unchangeable images, they become less tangible, less reachable.

How many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes, 'n' how many ears 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? Dylan is grieving in this stanza. The song was first performed in 1962, when the Civil Rights movement and the war in Vietnam was beginning to heat up. Dylan and others were beginning to protest in earnest the US's involvement Nam, and the rise of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. and equal rights for all. Dylan with this song was trying to focus attention on answers rather than reactions. He states in a published interview in the June edition of Slip Out!journal, "I still say [the answer is] in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some[time]...the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know [it]."

The answer, my friend,

is blowin' in the wind,

The answer is blowin' in the wind. The answers are there, easy to find, easy to grasp, if only people try.

Please keep in mind that many explications are possible, and any that are supported from within the work, or the words of it's creator, are real and valid. This is only one perception.

Answer 2

Bob Dylan doesn't give much of a clue, but I would suggest two possibilities:

1. Nobody knows. I don't mean that nobody knows what the phrase means, I mean that nobody knows the answers to the questions in the song, so there's nothing we can do about any of it.

2. The answer is all around you, like the wind; breathe it in, and you become part of the answer. For example, you (and I, and all of us) get to determine "how many times the cannon balls fly before they're forever banned." The answer is there all around us, just like the wind, and it's always been there. All we have to do is breathe it in.

Which of those answers you prefer? I guess it depends on your mood - cynical or idealistic. For me, given his strong feelings of making a change, I'd go for number 2.

Answer 3

It's a plea for global peace and toleration. Bob Dylan wrote it in the early 1960s, and it has been covered by Peter, Paul & Mary, The Seekers and several other artistes.

Dylan was inspired to write the song both as an anti-war statement and as an anthem for the American Civil Rights Movement (and, indeed, for civil rights around the world). At the time he wrote it, the Cold War was at it's height, the USA was beginning to get involved in Vietnam, and the US civil rights campaign was resulting in police brutality, Ku Klux Klan murders and terrible discrimination against black people. The song asks how long this must go on for using a number of metaphors (i.e. "How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man?") and how much more violence and hatred must people tolerate, before we are all able to love each other, put an end to war as a means of solving differences, respect each other's ethnicity and cultures, and live in peace and harmony. But the answer is that he doesn't know the answer to this question, and neither does anybody else- hence he can only say that 'the answer is blowing in the wind'. It's there, but no-one can hear it or interpret it.

Answer 4

• The song 'Blowin in the Wind' by Bob Dylan is about men in general who cannot seem to find peace or make peace, but only war. People hurt, man does not listen and there are no winners in wars and turns his head trying to ignore the atrocities in life. 'Blowin' in the Wind' means that there is no answer to the unrest in the world; pain; indignities of any sort because man never listens or learns from the past.

Answer 5

some people said he wrote it as a protest song, but he was really questioning freedom, peace and war.

Answer 6

He saw all the predujice, and wanted to express his support.