Art Analysis: The Vietnam War

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Reflections illustrates the emotional pain caused by war through the depiction of a man struggling with the memories of fallen comrades while he experiences the grief of being a surviving soldier and as he also struggles to carry on with life after the war. The subject of the painting is a Vietnam veteran paying tribute to his fallen comrades at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC. As he is standing alone and in silence, he appears to be contemplating his friends that never made it home alive from Vietnam. While gazing at the memorial, he doesn’t appear to be only reading the names, but he actually visualizes the faces of the dead men. The picture insinuates that even though the men were together for only a short amount of time, the recollection of war continues to haunt him regularly. …show more content…

The subject’s posture is that of a distraught man and he appears to be weeping as he contemplates those men cheated out of a future because of the war. The largest item in the painting, the enormous, black wall, signifies how the war left a massive dark place in his soul. The strong clashes of light and dark colors emphasize the sorrow and sadness caused by the war. The deceased soldiers in the wall extend their arms to comfort the grief-stricken man. The man may even be feeling guilt over how fate left him on this side of the wall and not just an etched name to be remembered. At the bottom of the picture is a flag that reads “POW-MIA” and an American flag. These two items together signify how even though the artist empathized with the suffering caused by American involvement in the war, he maintains his belief in the greatness of the United

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