What is the image arguing?
Is any information (such as text, or a detail of the image) highlighted or stressed to attract your attention? Why do you think this is?
The Vietnam War Memorial stresses the names of the soldiers who fought and died during the conflict and not the war itself. Maya Lin did not wanted to avoid the controversy of the conflict when creating the memorial. Unlike other famous memorials, it lacks statues of heroes and random soldiers in combat. The memorial does not paint an image of the conflict; however, it does highlight the conflicts cost by showing visitors the extent of lives lost.
What cultural values does the image evoke? Does the image reinforce these values or question them?
The memorial does not reinforce the cultural values of nationalism and patriotism. The memorial avoids the controversy of the Vietnam War and the mixed public
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The memorial shows the thousands of lives lost for the cost, and reveals the reality of war. The memorial respects and honors the men who served and died in the armed forces while shedding light on the immense loss of life. The memorial does appeal to pathos by displaying the exact loss of life.
What is your impression of the creators of this image? Do they make any overt appeals to ethos?
The memorial relies on pathos and logos to display its message. The names of those lost alone are enough to reveal the high cost of war.
Does the image make any appeals to logos? (In addition to facts / statistics / etc., remember also reasoning based on common sense, reasoning based on cultural values, analogies, etc.)
The memorial appeals to logos by weighing the immense body count of the war in front of its audience. Over 58,000 names of the deceased are displayed. The large number builds an argument that the war came with huge costs.
Evaluation: Is this argument effective?
Overall, do you think that this image makes a good argument? Why or why