Monuments and Memorials

In this essay, students will choose a specific monument, memorial, or artistic tribute which alludes to a historical event or person, and then write an analysis of the struggle for power that the monument represents. In addition to analyzing the statuary itself, and the rhetorical appeals that it makes to viewers, the paper should include a discussion of the problem, or struggle, that is embedded in the statue’s existence. What is being contested here? Who is empowered by it, and who is disempowered? What story is it telling us about history?