Native American Memorial

Throughout the world there are many beautiful monuments meant to memorialize some of the most important events, people, and places. Many people travel thousands of miles to see them. These places are not built in a day but rather but rather designed and throughout over an extended period of time to produce a stunning and meaningful product. When creating a monuments, people must not only consider what person, event, or place the monument represents but also the purpose and design of the monument and where the monument will be located. Before the design of a memorial can be thought out, people must first decide what to memorialize. Because memorials are meant to represent the most important things, the memorials subject must have some significance.
The purpose of a monument affects how a monument will be designed and be built to it is important to establish it early on. Some memorials are meant to remember and honor people. These monuments are often built with an elegant and sometimes simply design to focus on the people that are being represented. When speaking about designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., Maya Lin says that “[t]he need for the names to be on the memorial would become the memorial; there was no need to embellish the design further . The people and their names would allow everyone to respond and remember” (Lin). Lin’s simply black granite walls prove to be a powerful symbol of remembrance. They show that if the memorial’s purpose is to honor and remember, then the design should be simple so as not to draw attention away from those being recognized. If the memorial is meant to teach, it is designed in a much different manner. Some appear as museums such as the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.. These memorials are bigger because they have to house a lot more information. They often include artifacts, pictures, and information as well as names to convey the importance of the subject. Some people might wonder why the purpose and design of a monument are so important. Consider if a Vietnam Veterans Memorial was designed as a museum. The focus would be on the war rather than the veterans who the monument is supposed to honor. The simple design on the other hand delivers a much more powerful message and caters to the purpose of the monument more closely. Or take the Lincoln Memorial. It’s large marble statue of Lincoln and two speeches engraved on panels “manufactures its own aura” that makes the site almost feel sacred (Savage). The power of this memorial would not be found in the simple black marble walls or a museum. So, both the design and the purpose of the memorial are important for people to