Monument Dbq

Monuments are used to memorialize and honor moments of the past. Some monuments do this better than other monuments. In creating a monument there are three main factors a group or agency should consider to make the monument as effective as possible. A monuments location, size and backstory are the three most important factors to consider.

Location; where the monument is plays a big role in how effective a monument is in memorializing or honoring a person or moment. For instance Mount Rushmore, to the untrained eye it is a few important men of the past on the side of a mountain, but it is actually quite more. “I have to admit: Mount Rushmore bothers me. It was bad enough that white men drove the Sioux from the hills they still hold

For this factor i am going to use the example of the Holocaust museum at the mall in Washington, whose size greatly impacted its construction and role in the mall. “ The commission of Fine Arts refused the first design, stating the design was too ‘massive’. The members of the commission felt the massive building would overcome The Mall and take away the main purpose of the museum, which was meant to be a place of remembrance and not overpower The Mall or its visitors.” (Source E). Source E exemplifies why size is an important consideration when creating a monument, a monument is meant to memorialize an event or person, to commemorate respectfully, and effectively, to make you feel welcome. When you over or under-size a monument you either make it stand out to much or belittle the value of what the monuments story is. Another example of why size matters is the monument of Crazy horse in South Dakota, it has been under construction since 1948 and is not yet close to being finished because it is so big. By the time it is finished will its value have diminished? Will the people who finish know who crazy horse was and why they are finishing the

The main purpose to any monument should be to remember, to honor, to memorialize and to pay homage to an event, or person. An example of some monuments with a nefarious purpose are the confederate monuments. Specifically the confederate monuments in New Orleans. Many of the monuments were erected with the sole purpose being to intimidate and assert dominance over African-Americans in the region. “After the civil war, these statues were a part of that terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone's lawn; they were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city.” This quote is from New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu who did an entire speech on why the confederate monuments should be removed. Landrieu here is stating that because the purpose of those monuments was to do harm, they should be removed. However on the other side of the spectrum we have monuments that have a textbook purpose and effectively memorialize a figure, regardless good or bad. The Native American war leader Crazy Horse is a good example of this. His statue is in the badlands of South Dakota and is very near and similar to Mount Rushmore- it is carved from stone. The statue itself is of Crazy Horse pointing over “his beloved Black Hills”(Source C). Him pointing over these hills helps commemorate, and remember what he did even if