Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
From a third-person point of view by an unnamed narrator
Form and Meter
In Strophic Form
Metaphors and Similes
The roads mentioned in the song are a metaphor for a person's life experiences.
Alliteration and Assonance
N/A
Irony
"Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned?" is incredibly ironic as, throughout all human history, there has always been war, and it's never been banned.
Genre
Folk Song
Setting
Unnamed
Tone
Protest, Energetic, Not Peaceful, Questioning, and Angry
Protagonist and Antagonist
Normal human beings (the protagonists) vs. war (the antagonist)
Major Conflict
The conflict between normal human beings' desire to live peacefully and without being oppressed and the desires of man to enslave, oppress, and start wars.
Climax
Naturally, the chorus of the song "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind. The answer is blowin' in the wind" is the climax of the song.
Foreshadowing
Dylan's song doesn't utilize foreshadowing.
Understatement
The sheer anger the narrator was feeling was understated throughout the song.
Allusions
To contemporary history (mainly the Vietnam War, which the writer was vehemently against), to the history of the United States, Civil Rights, and slavery.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
It = The Vietnam War
Personification
Cannonballs are personified in the line "Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly."
Hyperbole
The line "Before they're forever banned?" is hyperbolic because war is an integral part of humanity and will not - and cannot - be banned.
Onomatopoeia
Dylan doesn't utilize onomatopoeia in the song.
