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2.1.1. The song's History
The inspiration for this song is believed to have come to Bob Dylan´s mind one afternoon in April 1962 , during a long political discussion with friends . As the conversation petered out in silence , Dylan was suddenly struck by the thought that there were severe problems in the U.S.A. of his time ,the Western world , respectively.
He had known this for a long time then and expressed his opinion towards the matter of the civil rights movement both as an artist and as an activist going out on the street . What he suddenly realized , however , was that the general public refused to see what was going wrong.. As he puts it:" The people in power refuse to look at what is happening. And the others , they ride the subways and read the Times , but they don´t understand. They don´t
know. They don´t even care and that´s the worst of it ."
This frustration is expressed in his probably best known song " Blowing in the wind".
The title already suggests that people do not care to give an answer or a solution to the enormous problems . At the same time , the poem aims at making people open their eyes to the obvious problems of these times such as fully integrating blacks and women into society.
2.1.2. Analysis
The poets objective is reflected in the structure of the poem.
The poem consists of three stanzas , each of nine lines . Every stanza is structured the same way : in the first six lines Dylan is asking three rhetorical , almost unanswerable questions . The question phrases always start with the same words (..." How many ..." ) , Dylan chose this parallelism as a stylistic device to put all emphasis on the questions asked , for the answer , as it is stated in the last three lines of each stanza , is "...Blowing in the wind" anyway .
Within his stanzas , Bob Dylan moves from the general to the particular . His first stanza begins with a strong opening image of a man walking down a road , which clearly relates to the civil rights marchers. Using the image of a white dove in the second question again reminds the reader of the civil rights movement. The activists were often referred to as doves , and of course everyone knew that a white dove was and still is a symbol for peace. In Dylan's eyes, people do not care about these symbols .It is not foreseeable when the "dove" and the "man" will eventually reach their aim. The Public did not even see their necessity , as they closed their eyes to the horrible state the world is in . Dylan ,on the other hand, illustrates that he sees no point in fighting and cannot understand , that cannonballs are still flying , that nobody sees a point in banning them .
As the Vietnam War is about to begin , those lines especially refer to the Vietnam War , but not solely , because Vietnam is not explicitly mentioned. This song is vague and all-encompassing and therefore it can be applied to almost any freedom issue ,at any time . Still , some metaphors and images clearly stem from the 60s .It is not absolutely necessary, though , to know them to get the message of this song.
Stanza N°2 starts off with the metaphor of a mountain being washed into the sea . Dylan chose this image because it is almost impossible to imagine the time it will take until a mountain will finally be washed into the sea. This mountain is compared to the , in the author's eyes, racist materialist , imperialist and repressive American society . It will take exactly the same time to open society's eyes to liberal ideas as it takes to wash down the mountain. Dylan implicitly wants to encourage the civil rights movement to keep on trying to make the U.S.A. a better place to live in , even if it will take an almost unimaginable long time .
As in the first stanza his second and third question are more straightforward than his philosophically disguised questions before. He then moves to the oppression of some people (..." allowed to be free"...) . The following lines connect to his idea that made him write " Blowing in The Wind" : he accuses the general public of turning their heads and pretending not to see what is going wrong .
In the third stanza the author appeals to the reader not to remain in his / her lethargy , but to sharpen his / her senses to the evil of the world . This is emphasized by the application of words relating to our senses :look /see ,ears/ hear and cry /hear .
The first question urges the reader to open his eyes in order to perceive his surroundings clearly. He is to open his ears to the cries of the suppressed people and to finally realize that too many have died in vain.
2.1.3 Dylan's Appeal to the Reader
Dylan appeals to the reader's common sense by asking these obvious questions. The point Dylan wants to make is that the real problem concerning the above -mentioned questions is not answering them but asking them . Most people , he points out ,do not care about those problems and do not bother to ask such obvious questions .
Furthermore , the song is validating the concern of the youthful protest movement while absolving them from the obligation to come up with absolute answers to the problems about which they protested.
The main idea of this song is that there are no hard and fast answers , the first obligation is to care. " The way to answer those questions ," said Dylan " is by asking them. But lots of people have to first find the wind."
2.1.4. Personal View
Personally , I think it is a great song , because , on the one hand it implicitly deals with the topics young revolutionaries liked to hear about ( oppression of blacks , women's role in society ) but on the other hand , because all statements are put generally , it can be applied to any freedom issue at any time.
Although Bob Dylan borrowed the tune from the old folk song " No More Auction Block "
for this song , " Blowing in The Wind " marked a huge jump in Bob Dylan´s songwriting , because it remains the song with which Dylan´s name is most inextricably linked . It safeguarded his reputation as civil rights libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.
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