For my group’s project, we chose the African Burial Ground National Monument. It is often easy, in such a modern city, to forget the centuries of history that have passed through New York, shaping its public spaces, culture, and people. Oftentimes we look towards art, statues, and monuments to remember and memorialize the individuals, events, and places that have sculpted our collective past. The African Burial Ground National Monument is dynamic in that it not only attempts to preserve history, the site is one of a recovery of history – where black slaves and freemen were buried from the 17th to 18th centuries, relegated to forgotten soil until a construction project in 1991 uncovered the bodies which prompted the city to find a way to preserve the previously lost history. One particular aspect of the African Burial Ground National Monument that I found extremely fascinating was the inclusion of dozens of religious symbols on the walls of the monument, ringed by the burial sites. Although my image doesn’t do it justice, this includes symbols that are instantly recognizable to us such as the Cross or the Islamic crescent but also includes symbols from places as what is now modern-day Ghana, a former significant source of African slaves in the Atlantic Slave Trade. This was significant to me because it represented how colonialism and the experience of slavery painted the diverse African continent as a monolith, a source of labor and nothing else. This feature was touching in that it appeared to cut through the stereotyping of Africa, in respect of the massive diversity and differences in experiences of not just black slaves in American but the African-American experience throughout American history in general. One part of the experience that wasn’t part of the monument that truly made me appreciate the historical value of the monument wasn’t in the picture or part of the site itself, was that during our time examining the beautiful structure, a tour guide led a group of what appeared to be kindergarteners, as he explained the history behind the monument. Their eyes gaped with wonder and they were eagerly asking questions about the space, and in that, I could see the prominence and importance of the monument – in producing a physical connection and bridge between today and the crucial history that has passed where we stand.

Buried Child by Sam Shephard is a play that revels in its darkness, sense of confinement, and challenges societal expectations of what family is meant to be. The death of the American Dream is a clear and present theme in this shocking play and this is embodied in a different manner in each of the characters. It’s important to recognize the setting of the play, which is an Illinois farmhouse in complete disrepair, in the 1970’s, an era of American history noted for the socioeconomic decline of much of rural America as well as a backdrop of general discontent and “malaise”. Throughout the play, references to a lack of crops and a general notion of poverty are actively present. This context is emphasized in not only the physical house that the play is occurring in – where we see knickknacks strewn everywhere, a seriously old couch, and other worn-down furniture – but in the fundamental flaws in the characters as well as what they stand for. We can see the fall of what is traditional American morality centered around a father figure and tight-knit family. Dodge has abandoned his role as the patriarch of the family, rather he is simply an immobile, helpless figure which is something that is blatantly obvious from the beginning of the play to the end. Rather, the role is reversed and he is actively dependent on much of his family which can be seen in his sloth, bitterness, and desperation for more alcohol when Tilden ends up drinking his bottle while he’s asleep. Instead of being a major figure of the family, he appears more of an emotional drain, a rebuke of how people picture the father when they see a stereotype of the American dream.

This betrayal is also obvious in one of the major plot arcs of the play, which is Hallie’s incestuous encounter with Tilden, her son as well as the killing of their subsequent baby by Dodge. She betrays the notion of the caring mother, which appears to have had severe emotional repercussions on Tilden, who himself appears to be mentally delayed. Bradley, Tilden’s brother and Hallie and Dodge’s son, is also seen as a dark figure, someone who has lost use of a foot, and appears to be an aggressive and angry bully. Hallie beckons this end of the American Dream, by reminiscing about it, which I believe is symbolized in her constant recalling of her dead son, Ansel, who she often talks about creating a monument for. I believe she so badly wants to leave her current reality, she longs for any distraction or thought of a better time. The notion of morality in religiosity in the context of a generalization of America is also shattered which we can see in Father Dewis having an affair with a married woman, and then in the heat of a great domestic struggle, fails to provide any significant or any guidance whatsoever. Even Vince and his girlfriend Shelley, who appear to be individuals that appealed to the audience’s need for some level of optimism in the play, are sucked into the doom of the fall of Dodge’s household. Throughout the course of their time there, they separated and Vince himself appears to have resigned himself to a position at the broken home, giving up, perhaps a symbol that this fall of the American Dream as can be seen by the shattering of this household, is like a tree whose roots can still hold down the branches that reach out furthest.