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Vietnam Memorial Symbolism

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Remembering the past in one’s life is full of mistakes, regrets, joy, memories, both memorable and forgettable. Pictures and other memorabilia allow us to have flashbacks into certain points of our lives which are unique and shared experiences. Being able to recollect memories would be both a blessing and a curse. There are multiple ways to remember events and people, some include; monuments,statues, acres of land, or in extreme cases entire cities. However, the size does not matter to an extent. When memorializing a person or event, a group or agency should consider, the correlation or significance to society, the setting of and around, whether or not the subject is controversial and the materials used to create the memoir. Our time on …show more content…

Objects and colors are symbols in literature, this philosophy is applied to monuments as well. The quality of the material represents a degree of respect to what is being remembered. Sadly our Maine Lobsterman was made out of plaster, a fairly cheap material, and was eaten by rats (Roadside America). This outcome of being consumed by rats represents that the agency was cheap and inconsiderate showing disrespect. A perfect example of material consideration is the Vietnam War Memorial. The Vietnam Memorial uses black granite which is very reflective because symbolizes the U.S needs to “reflect” about the tragedies of this war. Fighting the war was controversial because there was internal economic problems occurring in the U.S during this time period and the war costed a lot of American lives in vain. Another example was the desired granite would have came from Canada which at the time there was tension because people would dodge the draft for the Vietnam War by moving north to Canada. Given these points, the careful selection of black granite avoided the controversy with other countries and respectfully pays tribute to those lives lost during the

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She didn 't want the actual memorial to be different from her design because it would take away from her hard work and effort and the memorial wouldn 't look like hers. When Maya Lin was not studying she was taking independent courses at the University of Ohio and spent most of her free time casting bronzes in the school foundry. The memorial was a black cut stone masonry wall that had the names of all 57,661 fallen soldiers carved into it. The wall was in the shape of a V and it was strategically placed so that one side of it pointed to the Lincoln memorial and the other side pointed to the Washington Monument. People voiced their negative opinions about Maya Lin specifically because of the fact that she was of Asian ethnicity.

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720 Words | 3 Pages

In The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Maya Lin employs rhetorical devices in order to elucidate, the gross cost of the Vietnam Conflict in U.S. lives. The minimalist design used in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial emphasizes the overwhelming amount of human lives lost. On the Wall, a small diamond is depicted next to the names of people confirmed dead, if a person is MIA(Missing in Action) they get a small cross next to their name. The cross can easily be carved into a diamond if the person is confirmed dead ,or turned into a circle, a symbol of life, if they are found alive.

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This is the rule of commerce dwarfs commemoration of American life . 911 Memorial, commemorating the lack of built in the city and who had undergone a series of events to visualize its lifetime . This is a physical memorial of real-life examples. Not only 9/11 Memorial , the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is also in Washington, DC , this can also be seen as a collective memory . Collective memory of a nation is determined by its choice to erect the monument as a representative portion .

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The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was a significant event in America because it stood as a symbol of recognition and healing for those who fought in the war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built as

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Around the world people memorialize great hero’s, express great sorrow for those lost in battle, and celebrate the triumphs that had built the ground and infrastructure from one nation to the next; monuments are constructed to remember our past. Yet, monuments cannot be constructed out of nothing ,great goes into planning, paying, and research that goes into making sure correct homage is paid those who are due. If one wishes to build a memorial a few things must be taken into consideration,making sure the monument honors or recognizes an important person or event, the design of the building including shape and size,and lastly the monument is placed in an acceptable location based on the subject matter. The most important factor in building a monument is making something that people will recognize and feel an attachment to.

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The 8th grade class took a 4 day trip to Washington. We did many things to explore Washington D.C. including visiting monuments. Some people think differently of how a monument should be made. Good monuments to some people could be to make people remember about the person or thing being remembered or to just reflect the person’s life or importance. In “The Follower Problem” by David Brooks, David thinks a good monument should show power and authority.

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The Vietnam War was one of the longest, and the most costly war in America 's history. Vietnam War was primarily fought in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975 and never reaches United States shores. This disastrous war was fought between North Vietnamese and it allies Viet Cong against the United States of America and the South Vietnamese army. As most war are known to me bloody and cruel, The Vietnam War was especially cruel and devastating, it took the lives of millions of Vietnamese civilians. Civilians who will never get to see their country united under one banner, and unfortunately thousands of Americans solider lives were regrettably taken because of the war, names of those solider are forever written on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall, a permanent

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An astounding memorial, a piece of artwork, and a commemoration of all the Veterans who died or went missing is all shown in this text. What started as not even being considered Veterans soon transformed into creating a whole memorial in memory of them. The author’s word choice in the, “Always to Remember,” portion of the title symbolizes and recognizes the bravery and dedication the Vietnam Veterans had to fight for our country. For example, in the text it states how since many people were opposed to this war, “veterans were not honored as veterans of other wars has been.” This shows that since Americans were opposed to the army forces

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The first image has a Vietnam Veteran mourning over his love ones that he lost, while remembering his role in the war as well. However, the second image is a Prisoner of War protesting the war while he is still afraid for his life, knowing he stands a chance of becoming a prisoner again. More importantly, the two images are different because image one is in a safe environment at the memorabilia and image two is in a war zone. All in all, Washington, D.C. 1985. Vietnam Vet holds an American flag to the Vietnam Memorial by Peter Marlow and USA.

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The need to memorialize events or people is complex; in some cases, monuments honor moments of great achievement, while in other cases, monuments pay homage to deep sacrifice. A monument 's size, location, and materials are all considerations in planning and creating a memorial to the past. In any case, the need to honor or pay homage to a specific person or event is prevalent within society. A monument has to mean something to the society it is place in. The location of a monument is perhaps the most important aspect of creating a successful monument to honor and show respect to a person or event.

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If you had a statue in your town, Why would you want a statue representing your town that isn’t a hero? The text states, “Instead of honoring the officers, it honored the killers. That kind of “honor” has no place in an American city.” What do you think? From the other side, this statue and other statues are memories to some.

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For instance, Confederate monuments would allow generations to see that America isn’t “a place reserved for people who still want to spit our country, but rather a place for education that we can learn from the ugly protraction of our history” (Lanktree). Often, we talk about learning from the past so that the same mistakes won’t occur in the future. This specifically can be represented through these monuments; by having a symbol of the past where racism occurred, it serves as a reminder of what discrimination can do when one side is filled with bigotry. Having a place where one can learn about the effects of someone’s wrongdoings can allow today’s people to decide for themselves the future they want to create. Additionally, the author of the article Keep Confederate monuments, but put their horrific history on stage describes how Americans have been “willfully blind” about racial justice and that the statues could be used as reminders of the “catastrophic consequences” (Cose).

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This article journal is from: The Gift of Years by Joan Chittister. In the past, we often hear of people who wanted their name to be remembered throughout history. Whether it be a Roman gladiator, a foreign ruler, or a philosopher, many just wanted their name to be known for all of time. They believed that they left a legacy if their names went down in history. One of the most painful things is that there are graves of unknown soldiers or unclaimed bodies (Chittister 215).

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Memory privileges the private and the emotional, the subjective and the bodily. Against history’s rationality, memory rebels. Memory is malleable and subjective, allowing the person recalling an event to alter or even distort the situation for their own purposes. This idea can be seen in the Smithsonian website and Gordon Bennett’s artwork “Notes for Basquiat” , which both represent the event of 9/11 in vastly different ways. Personal and political bias can thus be seen in the interplay between historical factualism and collective, subjective memories.

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Some may have a more individualized message. Phillip Kennicott of the Washington Post said “Memorials set history in stone… And ‘set in stone’ suggests that an idea, or a fact, has been placed in its ultimate form, beyond emendation and, often, beyond debate or contradiction.” He pushes this claim further by explaining that memorials is the government telling us how to remember a particular conflict.

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