Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982), pushes viewers to think about the importance of the people and environment around them. By creating a reflective wall, slowly lowering viewers into a sea of names, and placing the sculpture in the famous national mall, Lin is placing the viewer in an environment where they are forced to think about where they are and the individuals named on the wall. She places the viewer in this environment, in order that they will begin to think about what each individual did to service the country they are in the capital of. Maya Lin is trying to force those viewing her work to think about what each human being does to contribute to a others’ surroundings and situations.

1. The memorial is unusual in design and it’s naming of all armed services members killed in the war. Comment on your reaction to its appearance and to the names on its wall.

Two major characteristics of this memorial are the reflective walls and the declining ramp that lead to the center of the memorial. Both of these aspects create a dense and crowded feeling, as if you’re surrounded on all sides by these names. Vietnam was the first war that was constantly viewed through television and it really allowed people to feel empathy for the soldiers and view them as individuals. Perhaps Maya Lin felt the same way. She wanted the viewer to enter the memorial and be surrounded by these names and really feel gratitude for each individual that was killed defending our country. When I visited the memorial this past summer, I wished that I could know who each of these soldiers were. There were so many names on the wall at the beginning, and as the walls got taller, the names began to crowd more and were filled. I really began to think about who these individuals could be. It was overwhelming, yet forced me to open my eyes to the power of the individual.

2. Speculate on the message this kind of memorial sends about armed services veterans, viewers, and war.

Rather than showing an example of what war was like, or a significant event in a war, like most memorials, Maya Lin creates a memorial that includes every individual that was killed throughout the entire war. She even makes sure that the center of the memorial includes the meeting of the names of individuals who died at the beginning of the war and names of individuals who died at the end. The memorial shows us the individual lives that were taken throughout the Vietnam War. It shows the viewers that every individual soldier is important and deserves gratitude. Rather than ignoring the large group of veterans we hear about, we should do our efforts to appreciate and feel empathy for every single one. It should also inspire the viewer to recognize how important they can be, despite the fact that they are only an individual. The memorial also shows the cost of war. So many individuals’ lives ended in this war, and the only information a viewer has on their lives is an overwhelming amount of names.