Eve of Destruction/ Blowin' in the wind

After listening to all the songs, these two were the songs that stuck in my head: Eve of Destruction by Barry Mcguire and Blowin' in the Wind by Bob Dylan. Blowin' in the Wind asks many simple questions which all basically amount to one big question: when is the war going to end?

"Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?"

If we relate it to the Vietnam war, this one question pretty much sums up the whole war. Blowin' in the wind represents the common American's views on the war, people who just wanted the war to stop and wanted their boys to come back home.

I really liked the Eve of Destruction. "Hate your next-door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace" It points out the hypocrity and irony of war; where on one hand we're fghting for freedom and "peace" and on the other hand, we're bombing places and killing people. Soldiers who are not old enough to vote are being sent out to war, and yet they still say they believe in peace. The Eve of Destruction has an almost incredulous and sarcastic tone; after all, how can a killing machine believe in peace? You can also sense frustration in the lyrics : "my blood’s so mad feels like coagulatin’" probably at the fact that nothing is in his control.

I think both these songs represent the common American's sentiments towards the war. It shows the frustration people felt and represents the anti-war period that America was going through.