The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Postmodern Discourse

SPRINGFIELD — Shirley Flores’ eyes filled with tears Friday as she read the name of her brother on a newly unveiled Vietnam War veteran’s memorial in Springfield.

The Vietnam War was gruesome and it was terrible for the United States. A little after the war ended, there was a contest for the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C. Maya Lin was chosen as the designer of the memorial, but John Carhart has some problems with her design. After reading Carhart’s article, he does make some good points about the memorial, but others are not quite right.

The Vietnam War that commenced on November 1, 1955, and ended on April 30, 1975, took the soldiers through a devastating experience. Many lost their lives while others maimed as the war unfolded into its full magnitude. The book Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam by Bernard Edelman presents a series of letters written by the soldiers to their loved ones and families narrating the ordeals and experiences in the Warfield. In the book, Edelman presents the narrations of over 200 letters reflecting the soldiers’ experiences on the battlefield. While the letters were written many decades ago, they hold great significance as they can mirror the periods and the contexts within which they were sent. This paper takes into account five letters from different timelines and analyzes them against the events that occurred in those periods vis a vis their significance. The conclusion will also have a personal opinion and observation regarding the book and its impacts.

In the poem “facing it” by Yusef Komunyakaa memorial may be more impacting than the monument itself. The memorial was designed by Maya Lin a student at Yale. She called the design “the architecture of design.” This memorial anticipated an effect on the veterans everywhere, and had a unique impact on the poet Yusef Komunyakaa himself. He found his first introduction to poems through his grandparents reading the old testimate, which sparked his interest for poetry. Later, he served in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970 as newspaper editor. A year after that the memorial was built, and he confronted his feelings along with the legacy of the Vietnam War and how race plays a big role into the war. As racism

The Austrian-American architect Friedch St. Florian made use of symbolism and the rhetorical appeal pathos in the Freedom Wall, at the World War II memorial museum in Washington, DC. These strategies aid those who are descendants of the military troops understand the sacrifices made in World War II, and pay homage to those who lost their lives and those who sacrificed for America’s victory. In the Freedom Wall, Friedch St. Florian makes use of symbolism by making the stars represent the thousands of lives lost in World War II.

In "Facing it” a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa, the utilization of symbolism to propose the tone brings out various emotions from anticipation to fear. The use of imagery to suggest the tone evokes many different feelings from anticipation to fear. In the beginning of the poem the speaker talks to himself while holding back tears at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. During this time the viewing of the Memorial brought back countless uncomfortable memories for a Vietnam Veteran such as the speaker. While he is there he is going through many different emotions, he is envisioning them as they are moving on, remaining in sorrow or just being a hardened veteran in the wall. As a veteran of the Vietnam War, the speaker reconsiders the familiarities of pain and having been in one of the most challenging wars in US History. The memorial wall

This memorial is very effective in the way the message and symbols are presented. The memorial emphasizes the United States’ side of the war and how it affected the country. The ways the illustrations are depicted are accurate in a sense that it only shows the effects it had to the U.S through symbolism. The way nationalism is used though the symbols are directly connected to the war and the nationalism that is emphasized in that setting. The layout and design is used to help build that intensifying persuasion. Persuasion can be found in many different ways an in the case of this memorial, it is found through the symbols, layout, and materials used to put the WWII memorial together.

The proposed Vietnam Veteran Memorial design is disgraceful. The proposed design is a black wall sunk into a trench. In the article, Insulting Vietnam Vets, By Tom Carhart, he states, “... memorial is anti-heroic - a black hole… universal color of sorrow and dishonor. Hidden in a hole, as if in shame.” The design gives the memorial a dishonorable feel opposed to other memorials rising with victory in white marble, the universal color of purity. Either the material choice of black granite or the choice to have the memorial in the ground need to be revised in order to remove the disgraceful feel.

This heartwarming story is about a young boy and his father who visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. they’re looking for his father’s name on the giant wall of names. While looking for his grandfather’s name, the young boy witnesses a soldiers who lost both of his legs, and is confined to a wheelchair, an older couple who are embracing each other crying, and a flower that id drooping. His father seems saddened, as well as the others who are visiting the memorial. The young boy is sad because he doesn’t have a grandfather, but his father tells him that he couldn’t be more proud to see his name on that wall because he died fighting for our

Douglas MacArthur, military chief for World War II, once said,”Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” For those who survive battle and return home safely, an entirely unique battle begins: learning how to move on. Vietnam War veterans specifically felt a lack of respect and acknowledgement from their fellow citizens because of the controversial causes of the war. In the chapter “Speaking of Courage” of The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien’s use of the symbolism of circles demonstrates the state of eternal meaninglessness and idleness that Vietnam-War-survivors like Norman Bowker experiences after returning home. In “Speaking of Courage,” O’Brien captures Norman Bowker’s failure to settle into his new life as a veteran

The Vietnam War was a war that included the United States involvement. The United States fought in this war to stop communism. After almost 20 years, the war ended and the result was Vietnam was split into two parts, North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was communist and South Vietnam was non-communist. Though this war ended, the American people who fought in this war were never forgotten. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built in Washington D.C in 1982, to always remember the people who fought in the Vietnam War for the United States. This wall has approximately 58,000 names on it of those who died fighting in the war. One person who fought in the War was James Avery. Although his name is not on the wall because he died in 2013

The next pieces of art were made with commemorative intentions, so that we not only fail to forget our history for better or for worst, but also to give thanks to those who have sacrificed themselves in the name of what they were fighting for. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial constructed in 1980-1982 and made out of Black granite, was designed by a student name Maya Lin. This controversial wall Bears the names of 60,000 American servicemen and women who died or are missing from the time of the war. These names were cleverly engraved down chronological order by year of death/missing. The memorial has influenced many other public memorials, despite the fact many were against it in the beginning. Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West depicts the military battle of 1759 in which the British Army defeated the French in a struggle for control of the Canadian portion of North America. The general, James Wolfe died on the battlefield just as his troop’s secured victory. His death represented the idea of patriotic self-sacrifice. This painting was also a controversial piece because of the wardrobe choice the artist decided to depict the “heroes” in. What really strikes me those most in this painting is the background. There is a billowing of smoke that seems to encompass almost half of the canvas, however the light from the midday sun looks as if it is starting to shine through. This could represent the victory of the battle or the Gods coming to lay General Wolfe to rest. You can also see that all the men surrounding General Wolfe are turned his way or even blatantly pointing. This draws the viewer to Wolfe’s fallen form even despite the fact that there is so much more surrounding him. Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware honors George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. This act was the first move in a surprise attack against the Hessian forces

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is in D.C., and hundreds of people visit it each day. It stands as a symbol of what Americans did in the Vietnam War, and how many we actually helped. The Vietnam War was a brutal war were many of the soldiers were wounded or killed, and those who died fighting for our country will always be remembered because of the Vietnam Veterans War memorial. The Vietnam Veterans War memorial is a lasting tribute to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives while fighting in the Vietnam War.

The remembrances of the Vietnam War are often thought upon with mixed emoptions. While there are those who praise the “bravest of men in our country” (Keith 38), some are stirred by the memorial, which happens to also be the most frequently toured site in the capital of the united states. It is covered with the names of over 50,000 men and women who served and died in the war of vietnam, it is regarded as a “shrine to the dead” (Taylor 24)  reminder of the loss of too many young Americans, and of what the war did to the United States and its messianic belief in its own overweening virtue.

The author has used the image of “the walls” not only to regard as the memorial but also to allude the invisible borders that were built up to separate the people, their races, ethics, as well as the family members. Throughout the play, each scenario illustrates each horrifying boundary that the wars in general, and the Vietnam Wars in particular has created. For example: the walls between Dan or Jerry separate them with the livings; the walls between Julie, Terry are the borders between ideas; the walls between Sergeant Lee Morris and Sarah Mitchell, or between Stu and Dave are the walls of suffers, sorrows, misunderstandings, and desolations; and the walls between Scruggs and Carhart with Maya and Vi are the walls of discrimination and prejudice.