Ryan Larson - "Dylan and the Hero's Journey"

  While reading The Hero With a Thousand Faces, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the hero's journey and the 1962 Bob Dylan song 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall'. The song is loosely based on the poem 'Lord Randall', with a call-and response format in the verse, and tells a poetic and metaphorical story of the state of the world during the 1960s, with a message that is simultaneously apocalyptical and hopeful. To get a better idea, you should probably listen to the song before reading this if you want to really get it.

The song centers around an unnamed hero, whom the narrator refers to as 'my blue-eyed son' or 'my darling young one'. This is the hero who will go on a metaphorical journey throughout the course of the song. The first verse goes:

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

And where have you been, my darling young one?

I've stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains

I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests

I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

I've been 10,000 miles in the mouth of a graveyard

The exact meanings of these lines, of course, are not known to anyone (and perhaps not even to Dylan himself). However, we can see that the hero is on a journey of some sort, stopping in various locations. As spectators, we come into the trip in medias res, with the call to adventure and departure having already happened. While the first verse has a relatively neutral tone, the following verses quickly become increasingly darker and less inviting (I've picked out the relevant lines for the sake of clarity, because it is a very long song):

I saw 10,000 talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'

I heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter

I met a white man who walked a black dog

I met a young woman, her body was burning

These lines touch on many topics, from violence to censorship, to racism-- all of which, of course, were very relevant topics during the 60s and continue to be relevant today. The main point, at least for our purposes, is that throughout these verses the hero is getting farther and farther away from home-- closer to the belly of the whale.

Then, in the fifth and sixth verse, there is a sudden shift. Instead of asking the hero about the past (where have you been, who did you meet, etc.), the narrator asks the hero about the future: 

What'll you do now, my blue eyed son?

What'll you do now, my darling young one?

We have caught up with the hero in time, and now are in the present. The hero has gone down to hades and is now ready to return. From the following two verses, we can see that the hero has achieved some sort of higher meaning or enlightenment:

I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'

I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest

Where the people are many and their hands are all empty

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters

Where their home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison

And the executioner's face is always well-hidden

Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten

Where black is the colour, where none is the number

And I'll tell it and speak it, and think it and breathe it

And reflect from the mountains, so all souls can see it

And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'

But I'll know my song well before I start singing

Like the Buddha, the hero has discovered the secret to life-- and now they are ready to share it with the world. He has found the ultimate boon and is ready to cross the return threshold. Though the speaker isn't entirely clear about the nature of his message, we can assume from the nature of the song and culture at that time that it most likely involves peace, love, and all the usual idealistic aphorisms. 

Here, with a final chorus, the song ends. We never learn if the hero is successful in sharing his message. Perhaps, as in the case of Jesus or Buddha, the ensuring journey is slow and fraught with setback. Even after a hero's journey is complete, I suppose, their hardships may not be over. Perhaps this is the start of a new journey. But of course that's all speculation. Thanks for reading!