In The Wall, Joseph Krivda (2015) shares his views regarding the symbolic role that the Vietnam War Memorial (the Wall) serves. The predominant sense/image that he presents is that the wall is representative of America’s futile effort to impose its beliefs and values on another country. Krivda argues that the colors, the spatial positioning and the placement of the memorial in relation to other monuments is intended to make it clear that the thousands of deaths that the US sustained in the Vietnam War were pointless as they served no purpose.
To present his argument, Krivda relies heavily on figurative language and imagery. For example, in his essay, he describes the wall as a “nihilistic slab of stone”. In addition to being a metaphor, this is an instance of figurative language in use. It is intended to indicate that the Vietnam War Memorial lacks significance and is a reminder of the country’s costly blunders. The imagery that Krivda uses in the essay mostly takes the form of vivid descriptions, simile and metaphors. For example, in the first paragraph, he describes the Memorial as “a singular, long, black wall built into the ground, bearing the names of the war's dead.” Through this description, Krivda conjures up an image that allows readers to visualize the scale and dimensions of the Memorial. Krivda also uses simile to shed further light on the structure and function of the wall. For example, he notes that the wall is “built into the ground, like a common retaining wall one would see in a suburban backyard.” Here, Krivda’s uses simile to suggest that the Vietnam War Memorial is of little significance.
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When they present arguments, it is important for writers to convey a dominate impression. Essentially, the dominate impression is the general and over-arching message that they convey. As noted earlier, Krivda’s main message is that the Vietnam War Memorial is a painful reminder of the pointless sacrifice that American soldiers made in the pursuit of a futile effort. To present this argument, Krivda focuses mostly on the structure and positioning of the Memorial. He contends that the location, color and material of the memorial combine to suggest that the Vietnam War was a costly disaster that claimed thousands of lives. From the reading of the essay, what is clear is that the incorporation of figurative language and imagery enhances the appeal of writing.
References
Krivda, J. (2015). The wall. Fresh Writing. Retrieved June 16, 2019 from https://freshwriting.nd.edu/volumes/2015/essays/the-wall
