What Do Artists Do Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

What Do Artists Do - Essay Example This essay discusses that the nation was bitterly divided that the returning veterans got almost no recognition for their efforts. In this environment of an ongoing debate, the role of Lin was to build a memorial, honoring the human sacrifice of the war while at the same time neither praising nor criticizing the war itself.Ass the report stresses at the center of the memorial is a long, tightening, V-shaped wall of black granite, engraved with the names of the missing, the captured as well as the dead-totaling to 58,000 names. This memorial suggests a modern entrance to an old burial mound even though it lacks entrance. Thus, the extremely polished surface serves as a mirror providing a reflection of the nearby trees, Washington Memorial as well as the visitors passing by.  As they enter along the walkway from either side, visitors are not aware at first of the low wall at their feet. The monument starts, unnoticed just as the war itself did; a few support troops sent to a distant and small country, a few deaths in the nightly news. As visitors descend along the downward-sloping path, the wall becomes taller and taller, towering overhead, and so do the names increase. People oftenly reach out and touch the letters, touching their own reflections. A corner turns at the lowest point of the walkway, with the wall at its highest. The path climbs upwards, and the wall falls away. Drawn from both the Washington Memorial and Lincoln Memorial, visitors leave the war behind.