Monument Or Memorial Dbq

Monuments are significant because it is a visual sight of history and the influential people that helped make history. Monuments help express cultures, they are also great for educating the young minds and for attracting tourists. Monuments attract to the younger generation because they are able to see a physical sculpture of what they are reading about in books, and it is important for the younger generation to learn about different significant events that occurred in the past. Monuments are beautiful to stare at and they often attract many tourists but they take a lot of time, money and planning prior to having them constructed. Prior to constructing a monument or memorial the controversy of the monument or memorial and the target audience

should be considered. Monuments do not simply show up, some monuments take over 30 years to create. In order to ensure that the time and the hard work are being placed in the right monument, the artist must consider the controversy and the target emotion of each of their monuments prior to creating them. Monuments are created to educate about specific events or people but in order for people to gain this sense of understanding those monuments have to spark their curiosity and this is the artist's job to attract the right audience.
The very first thing that needs to be considered prior to creating a monument or memorial is the controversy level and how it will make others feel.

It has been seen lately in the news that many of the previously created monuments have caused controversy because of the emotions they’ve riled up. Many artists need to consider how the audience will react to the monument or memorial that is being created. Article E is a perfect example of the controversial aspect not being reviewed prior to the modeling of a memorial. Article E discusses the controversy of the Holocaust museum being created in the United States. “The controversy came from both Jewish and non-Jewish communities, primarily due to the fact that a museum dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust would be built in the United States, who did little to stop the Holocaust from occurring, or as one protestor (Source E)”. The emotions of the Jewish communities should be on the priority of the artist's agenda prior to creating this design for the Holocaust because this is such a devastating historic part of their lives, not the Americans life. This made a lot of people feel as if the United States was taking credit for the ending of the Holocaust which came off offensive to some people. Many were not in support of this museum is in the United

States simply because it would not be depicting a real sense of what the Holocaust was like. It would be a completely different scenario if the United States was willing to build the Holocaust museum in a place in Germany where the terrific mass murder occurred. The approval of the right community should have been given prior to creating the Holocaust museum. Another example of controversial monuments is the monument of Christopher Columbus which is depicted in (document B). The debate on whether or not Christopher Columbus is a hero has been going on for many years and the monument of him does not make it any better. In all history class, children learn that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered the Americas. It has been proven that for one Christopher Columbus was looking for India, not the Americas, and second, there were already people living in the Americas prior to his arrival so he did not discover the land how it is sometimes stated in textbooks. Christopher Columbus is a very controversial man he is known to have mistreated the Native Americans in their own home which is one of the major reasons why people do not believe he should be celebrated and by having a statue of him and his own day he is being celebrated for nothing spectacular. Source E and B corroborate to explain the controversial impact that some monuments or memorials may have which can lead to issues with the general public. In the two documents analyzed above the common error were the failure to think on whether or not the monument or memorial would be controversial and failure to think of the general public's reaction and feelings towards the monument or memorial.
The second thing that must be addressed prior to creating a monument or memorial is the emotions that the artist wants to express.

Prior to creating a monument or memorial the emotion and the mood of the monument should be analyzed. The artist must first analyze how he or she feels about the topic then how he or she would want the visitors to feel after having seen the monument or memorial. In article G the architecture states “ The people and their names would allow everyone to respond and remember” the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wanted to bring a somber and reflective mood to the memorial allowing the visitors and the loved ones of those who died to properly pay their respects and connect to the past. By adding their names this made each life lost due to this war count as a significant piece of history and it allows their families to understand their heroic death. Another article that corroborates with article G is article A, this article states “ In this way, the monumental core in Washington functions somewhat like a pilgrimage site, where communities of believers actually come together in the act of occupying a holy site, seeing a relic, reenacting a sacred event”. This shows the connectivity to the past and the desire to learn about the pass from many Americans and non-Americans. People want to see and interact with actual sculptures because it makes the things they read about to feel real. Millions of people gather every year to visit many of

Washington D.C’s monuments and tons of people do it in a group because the monuments create the mood for a conversation about the past events. Article A explains the openness and the way the experience is overall for people who visit most monuments; this is important because these are the mood that the designers of the monuments should be responsible for creating. In document B the emotions felt were as a result of the Vietnam Memorial and it showed great evidence of the designer organizing her feelings and desires for the monument.
Monuments are an important part of the world it keeps the past alive thousands of years later. In order to create better monuments, the controversy and the emotional aspect of the monuments should be analyzed. Artists must first think of how people are going to react and then how they are going to feel after seeing the monuments. It is easy to say create better monuments but by knowing the targeted emotion and the controversial topics to stay away from, the future monuments that are being created will be at their best.