Martin Luther King Memorial Analysis

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Analysis of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, standing at thirty feet tall, lies on 1964 Independence Avenue Southwest in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is located at the Tidal Basin surrounded by D.C.'s famous cherry blossom trees near the National Mall, in between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, adjacent to the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial to symbolize a visible "line of leadership." The idea to dedicate a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. arose in 1984; the construction began in 2010 and took a year to complete by Chinese artist Lei Yixin and Nicolas Benson who designed the 450-foot-long inscription wall. The memorial opened August 22 2011, near the …show more content…

himself. The quote ingrained on the Stone of Hope, "Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope," demonstrates the idea that the latter is emerging from the Mountain of Despair at its symmetrical cross-section, in which the quote juxtaposes the two separate ideas of hopefulness and melancholy. In accordance, the Stone of Hope acts as the foreground, the Mountain of Despair is the middle ground, whilst the crescent-shaped Inscription Wall serves as the background. Since the wall is darker than the white granite placed in the front, the scene provides noticeable contrast (darkness to lightness). The Tidal Basin helps compliment King's stern facial features by mixing environmental calmness and serenity with perseverance and the strive to implement deeply-rooted [American] values. The memorial aesthetically looks its best when viewed from an aerial perspective or from the the Stone of Hope's bottom-left, as the statue is slightly shifted to the right for this …show more content…

The aforementioned quote carved into the Stone of Hope's side explains the central message by also demonstrating Martin Luther King Jr. fracturing the Mountain of Despair and victoriously emerging from it, symbolizing the "hope" that his sermons intended to bring into society. King represents the hopeful dreams and forthcomings of equality and justice in the United States, which could possibly be a factor as to why a paler, brighter granite color was used to contrast the black Inscription Wall, familiarizing with King's inscribed quote: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." (1963, Strength to Love). The blandness and rigidness of the Mountain of Despair is possibly conveying the disappointments and stagnancy that conflict and prejudice has to offer. In the background, the Inscription Wall's fourteen quotes were carefully chosen to center around four positive keywords to match King's ideals: love, democracy, hope, and justice. From the lack of chronology, individuals may define their own path, much as to reality. There is no required pacing, start nor end, in which provides a sense of freedom, motivation, and individual goals for positivity. These messages span across the globe to encourage the fight for civil rights and equality via civil

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