In our society Mount Rushmore is an awe inspiring sight that is a must on the bucket list of most Americans and for people from other countries all across the world. As someone who has been to Mount Rushmore I experienced over whelming feelings of patriotism and confidence that we as a nation can handle anything that this trying world may throw at us. I can attest that not only did I feel this way but others feel this way as well. I had friends from Africa visit me this summer, and when they visited Mount Rushmore they said they could feel the patriotism that we Americans are known for. They were in awe of how a simple granite monument could convey those feelings and ideologies.
Mount Rushmore is one of the many great American icons we have
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today, it is in the same class as The White House, New York City, and The Statue of Liberty just to name a few. All of these very American places and monuments portray similar and different ideologies to the American public and the rest of the world. The ideology of Mount Rushmore is shown through examining the monument as a whole, the individual presidents and their impacts on our country. Within this essay I plan to discuss the ideology that is expressed from the location of Mount Rushmore, the medium of the monument, Mount Rushmore as a whole, and then each individual president that is featured on the monument. The Story of Mount Rushmore Mount Rushmore is located in South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest, about 25 miles southwest of Rapid City, South Dakota (Staff; smithsonianmeg.com). The granite outcrop is named after Charles E. Rushmore, whom was a New York lawyer that came to the Black Hills to look at a few different mines (Staff). This outcrop is 400-feet high and 500-feet wide with an east-facing slab of granite (Smithsonianmag.com). While touring the area Rushmore asked the name of the mountain, to which the local man guiding Rushmore said that it did not have a name and from thereon it would be called Mount Rushmore (Staff). The idea of Mount Rushmore was the brainchild of South Dakota State Historian Doane Robinson in 1923 (blackhillsbadlands.com). He was looking for a way to increase tourism into South Dakota, his original idea for the faces to be represented did not include presidents, but important Native Americans and American Explorers (blackhillsbadlands.com). The idea to feature a few great American Presidents in order to honor the first 150 years of the United States came from the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum, he also wanted to create a room behind the mountain that would store our nation’s most valuable documents (blackhillsbadlands.com; smithsonianmag.com). Funding for Mount Rushmore was fought for by Rapid City Mayor John Boland and South Dakota Senator Peter Norbeck, President Calvin Coolidge was convinced to support and fund the building of Mount Rushmore after he came to South Dakota for his summer vacation (Staff). In an attempt to get President Coolidge to come to and stay in South Dakota a few of the local residents along with the lodge park rangers and the Governor of South Dakota had fishing nets installed a mile above and below the lodge and filled with large trout to make the president enjoy his vacation and to delay his vacation as long as they could (Holtzmann). This plan of theirs worked splendidly, the intended three week vacation was drawn out a few more weeks to a three month vacation (Holtzmann). Through these efforts Mount Rushmore was 85% funded by Congress, President Coolidge made the initial federal contribution of $250,000 (blackhillsbadlands.com; Staff). The four presidents featured on Mount Rushmore are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. In general these four presidents were chosen because they made major contributions to the United States. George Washington was chosen for a very obvious reason, he was the first President of the United States of America, he stood and fought for our freedom from the British crown, he also set the example for the following presidents (traveladviortips.com). Thomas Jefferson is featured because he wrote the Declaration of Independence and he was the first president to expand the nation with the Louisiana Purchase (traveladviortips.com). Theodore Roosevelt was selected because he is credited with bring the East and West together when he funded to have the Panama Canal built and developing our country as a world power just before the 20th century (Smithsonian.com). Abraham Lincoln is on the monument for his work in keeping the country together during the Civil War and ending Slavery (traveladvisortips.com). The actual carving of Mount Rushmore began in October of 1927 and the monument was dedicated as seen today on October 31st, 1941 (mountrushmore.org; Staff). Mount Rushmore was carved using a few different techniques, the first step was to blast a rough oval shape using dynamite (Atkins et al.). After this was roughly done, the workers would measure the spots for the forehead, nose and chin; after this smaller blasts of dynamite were used to get more defined facial features (Atkins et al.). To remove the last few inches of granite the workers used jackhammers to make small holes close together in a honey comb shaped patterns (Smithsonianmag.com). After this a tool that had “a rotating, multi-diamond drill bit head to buffer the presidents’ skin smooth” (Smithsonianmag.com). Interestingly enough, even with dynamite used in the carving 90% of this statue, no one was killed while working on Mount Rushmore (Kelly). The total cost of our national monument was a whopping $989,992.32 (Kelly). Ideological Criticism Ideological criticism is the method I think will best allow me to identify and argue the ideology that I discover while examining the monument as a whole and the presidents’ individual contributions to our nation. First, ideology needs to be defined. Sara Mathis defines the concept of ideologies as “evaluative beliefs that people possess which form a ‘system for the interpretation of fundamental, social, economic, political, or cultural interests’” (7). Sonya Foss gives another understanding of ideology, “a mental framework- the language ‘concepts, categories, imagery of thought, and the systems of representation’ that a group deploys to make sense of and define the world or some aspect of it” (209). Dr. Paula McKenzie talks about the “components of an ideology are beliefs that evaluate relevant topics, provide an interpretation, and encourage particular attitudes and actions” (17). Now that ideology is defined, I can now point out a few of the identified presented elements in my artifact as suggested in Foss, they include the granite cliff face, presidents, the wilderness and grand scale (214-215). The main themes that I think come out of this artifact are perseverance, ingenuity, patriotism, development, and exploration (Foss 218). This method of criticism is ideal because as the critic I would like to draw out the artifact’s potential ideology or ideologies. Along with this I would like to discuss what these ideologies may mean to the American people as a whole. This method is also useful when dealing with artifacts that does not include verbal or written language, such as Mount Rushmore. Analysis In this section I plan on analyzing Mount Rushmore in a holistic way, by discussing the monument with all its components understood as one, such as the material it is built on, its location, the men depicted, and the ideology embedded within each aspect.
Then I will discuss the importance of each president and what their contributions were and the ideology that is hidden within their actions that helped advance our nation to what it is today.
Mount Rushmore is carved into an enormous granite outcrop erupting from the wilderness in the middle of South Dakota’s famous pine covered Black Hills. Granite, the rock that this monument is carved into is a very tough and durable stone, the excepted rate of erosion is “one inch every 10,000 years” (smithsonianmag.com). I believe that this choice in stone represents the ideologies of permanence and durability. With this erosion rate, this monument will last for millenniums, this suggests that our nation is a permeant and durable nation. We will not be wiped out easily. We as a nation are also resilient, the use of this stone leads one to believe that it will take more than a few gusts of “wind”, by the use of this term I mean a few glancing blows (physical attacks) or verbal attacks from other countries to bring us down. I think that granite also suggests that we are a stable, unmovable force with an unshakable foundation (our Constitution) which has been true for the past 200 plus years. The stone that this statue is carved into has the embedded ideologies of permanence, durability, resilience, and stable used to describe our
nation.
In the novels Counselor Ayres’ Memorial by Machado de Assis and The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata, there are common themes and motifs that are present in both books. There is a strong element of love (both romantic and familial) and of separation. These themes have significant effects on the characters and the plot. Both novels also present a similar message about life and the world. Although the novels have similar themes, they are expressed differently in each.
In conclusion, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were very different people who held different beliefs on America, but nonetheless, these two men gave their all in making America a better place. Without these two leaders, America could have been a very different place today. Who knows, I might have been writing this paper in German had it not been for them.
In conclusion Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt were full of similarities and differences. What was seen though was more similarities than differences. They were both great men and a great part in our American History. They made this country great, marked their names in history books, and have helped influence it into the place it is today.
Oaths and promises were made by Franklin Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover in their inaugural addresses. Hoover and Roosevelt helped the country face the depression and transition into World War II. Both presidents’ inaugural addresses voiced concern and hope for the country. In their inaugural addresses, Hoover and Roosevelt expressed views about the future, the current situation, the challenges that were faced by our leaders, and how the Great Depression impacted the nation Hoover outlined his hopes for America’s future during his inauguration.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and President John F. Kennedy (JFK) were both very inspirational people who gave important speeches during their presidency. These men both wrote about their own ideas in each speech they presented. The speech from Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” and Kennedy’s “Inaugural Address” both write of their own beliefs of freedom, and their purposes. Although during Roosevelt’s time in 1941 the situation was different from Kennedy’s situation, because Roosevelt was entering WWII and Kennedy was in a cold war.
The memorial grew out of a need to heal the nation's wounds as America struggled to reconcile different moral and political points of view. In fact, the memorial was conceived and designed to make no political statement whatsoever about the war. The Memorial is a place where everyone, regardless of opinion, can come together and remember and honor those who served. By doing so, the memorial has paved the way towards reconciliation and healing, a process that continues today.
History has a strange way of coming back around when it comes to human civilization. It has been said repeatedly that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. However, just because there is a potential for danger in the future, this does not mean that humanity must ignore what once was. History is normally remembered through what is known as a memorial. When a memorial is put into a physical representation, it is then known as a monument.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. Examples of such feats are the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and even Mount Rushmore. For the latter of the
Americans from all walks of life watch, tears clouding the eyes as a young Boy Scout lays a red, white and blue wreath at the foot of the tomb. The soldier stopped and announced that all in attendance were to stand in silence, with their hand laid across their hearts. All Veterans or current military personnel are encouraged to salute. I was fascinated by the young family beside me who were visiting from France. As they all placed their hands over their hearts, I realized that American soldiers don’t just fight for America, they fight for the world.
Along with reforms by citizens the presidents of the Progressive era also fought to make things right. President Roosevelt was a war hero, and a great leader of the United States. During his role as...
I felt this morbid and realistic presence of the soldiers and for a mere second felt the gloom and menace of the war they were in. I walked around the site to gather more information on what the memorial was dedicated to. I walked past the mural wall and as I did, I paid particular attention to the various images of people and equipment on the wall. All of the facial expressions of the people on the wall gave the memorial a very real presence to it. I continued walking down the granite walk
Not only are military heroes buried at Arlington, but memorials have also been built to honor others who have given their lives for America. The memorials that are located throughout Arlington tell a story about people throughout American history (Reef 43). Each year families walk the endless rows of white head stones at Arlington in order to pay their respects to the ones that have given their lives for America.
...ill appear in history texts fifty years from now or how the historian then will evaluate the work of our current and most recent presidents. We do know that for those of us living today, the daily actions and decisions of these presidents have a great impact on our lives, on the future of the United States, and on the world.
Why do sentinels guard the tomb 24/7? Why is the tomb so sacred to America? There is no specific way to answer all these questions that so many American’s ponder, but there are many possibilities to consider. The tomb of the Unknowns has a special place in many American’s hearts. Since the remains in the tomb are unidentified many mothers, fathers, wives, and other family members feel a strong connection with the tomb. The families that lost soldiers that never returned after these wars connected with the tomb because they felt that the tomb may contain their sons, husbands, or brothers. What if you were somehow related to one of the four soldiers in the tomb? John Eisenhower wrote a newspaper article about the significance of the tomb. In his article he states, “Its significance is staggering going to the very core of how democracy defends itself in a perilous world.” This quote reveals that the tomb represents America’s fight for democracy in this dangerous world. After every war America remains a democracy even when the world around may not agree. Eisenhower thought this monument was different from any other because it honors soldiers. Most monuments honor men that are high up in the military, but this one honors those who are simply the soldiers. The soldiers in the tomb signify all the other soldiers that have lost their lives at war. The tomb of the unknown soldier is found in many other countries
...lding can be, yet it has its own distinctive style and meaning. The Memorial is not a mirror image of its ancient ancestor, rather, it is a descendant of centuries of development and change. The Jefferson Memorial is no simple carbon copy of the original Pantheon, it is a building and a work of art in its own right and should be appreciated regardless of history.
Many people feel a strong sense of patriotism and nationalism when they view a monument. Pride in one’s country is a great feeling. Monuments help bring out those feelings of nationalism. Homeland monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and Madison Square Garden makes one feel special. Millions of people from all over the world come to where you call home to view something that is special to you. We take such things for granted too often.