Vietnam Veterans Memorial Book Report

The first social function of art is when artists create places for some human purpose. Some reasons are for memories, others are for just sitting around and talking. A big thing that all artists create this with is the intention for people to gather at them and bring people closer together. One example is Stonehenge, which they think was created for a community gathering for that community to perform rituals. People in my generation may not know what Stonehenge is, but most of us through family members or either visiting it will know of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The book talks about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and how at the beginning people will barley notice the wall, but once you get walking further, the wall keeps growing, soon taller than the visitors with names upon names. This wall has a few unique features to it, one being that the path is downward sloping so the wall is built the same height all around with a level top. Another being that at the beginning it goes unnoticed, just like the war did when it was first starting out. The last is at the end, where the path slopes back upwards, after you turn a corner, you are either drawn to the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial,

Basically what artists do is they create images or pictures that help us remember past memories and be able to relive them, especially if they were short lived or rare occasions. The painting in the book is done by Manohar and is called Jahangir Recieves a Cup from Khusrau. Jahangir is a ruler of the Mughal dynasty in India, and was being passed the exquisite present of a golden cup by his son Khusrau. This painting falls under this category because it commemorates a time of reconciliation between father and son, who had a violent falling out. The moment didn’t last. This also records a piece of their history because it gives viewers a glimpse of what life may have been like, since much of that history is