The Point of Memorials

Today during class, there were so many questions that were asking what is the point of a memorial or monument. The questions were: What is the function of this or that memorial?, What is the purpose of this/that memorial?, or What does this/that memorial represent?. To me what everyone was asking over and over again was what is the point of this or that memorial. It is generally thought that memorials are supposed to honor those they represent. The other common thought about memorials is that memorials are supposed to be remind us of past events. Both of these ideas apply to the design of memorials, but they do not cover what else memorials do.
I can sum up the point of memorials in three general ideas: remembrance, honor, and identity. The first and most obvious point of memorials is to remember past events. Memorials are strategic memories and they present the past in the way that the memorial's creator envisions the past. So many memorials on the national mall present only part of history or part of the person. The memorials are supposed to help those who visit them remember the past in a very specific way, and the memorials are presented in such a way that that is how the event is remembered.
The second point of a memorial is to honor those who are part of the past event. This is probably most easily recognized function of a memorial. The WWII memorial honors those who served ad died during WWII. The Vietnam War memorial and the Korean War memorial do the same. Even the Lincoln memorial honors President Lincoln as a great president. Memorials honor those from the past.
Finally, and the most complicated aspect of memorials is the identity that they create. So much of the American identity is wrapped up in our memorials. What we choose to memorialize tells a lot about America as a nation. As you walk down the national mall, you can observe the
American ideals of freedom, liberty, and honor displayed at every memorial. The memorials are designed to display American ideals. Each memorial is part of a national American identity, but they are also part of and individual or personal identity. The reason that many of the memorials evoke so much emotion for so many Americans is because they are personally connected to the event. The individual identity extends to the subject of the memorial. The Korean War memorial has multiple individual identities embodied in it with the individual faces of the soldiers and the individual names of the countries. In contrast, the Vietnam War memorial is a group identity as the name focus on a specific group. The individual names are individuals, but they make a part of the larger group of men who died. Many times the memorials seem to be in contradiction and even fighting each other as the group and individual identities are at odds.