WP-1 Pre-Writing Assignment

Upon the closure of World War I, the U.S. government hired a special group of photographers to document the events to come under the Farm Security Administration (later under the Office of War Administration during WWII). The information given on the government's photo remembrance site do not match data found on the Arlington National Cemetery's website because the date this photo was taken (1919) seems to have occurred before the monument was built (1921). Regardless, the photo was taken by John Collier and is known as "Sailor and Girl at Tomb of the Unknown Solider" and whose title barely captures the emotions this picture invokes.

To start analyzing the photo at hand, we can make assumptions as to who the people in the photo itself are in relation to each other and in society. The man is dressed in standard dress for a sailor at the time and without the title or previous knowledge of the monument can assume this to be a gravesite or burial grounds. Within the photograph, it appears as if the woman is there comforting the sailor as he kneels in front of the tomb clearly emotional. As far as the woman, she could be his sister or perhaps just a friend but more likely his wife or girlfriend who had been eagerly aware of the return of her significant other only to find him greatly impacted by the hangover of wartimes. Again with no context of the tomb itself from the title, we could conclude that due to the emotion from the sailor's vulnerable posture and the look of concern on the woman that the grave was of someone dear to perhaps both of them.

Yet upon further review, we realize that the tomb itself was constructed by the U.S. government as a memorial for the soldiers lost in the heat of WWI and contains the body of a man never identified. From this perspective, perhaps the tale is different. The sailor, upon returning home and experiencing the joy of seeing his family and friends is stricken with grief thinking about his brothers still overseas or the ones lost and who never made it home to see their families. The landscape seen in the background of the shot plays towards the guilt and odd blend of sheer joy and utter sadness and this cheerless structure overlooks Washington D.C. with the Capitol Building off in the distance. The background of the photo reminds us as viewers as to what these men laid their lives on the line for, the freedoms we take for granted on a daily basis, but also brings about questions such as "At what cost do we pay for such freedoms and peace?"

The fact that their are only two people and such few elements of attention in the piece speaks to yet another appeal to the emotions and pathos of the picture in that it feels so desolate and isolated where this grave is placed. No solider should be forgotten, yet this one was never identified, his family never notified, and his mother left with nothing more than an MIA message from a colonel and chaplain that never met the man. A monument in his honor, and for the honor of all those that never made it home, built in a field surrounded by pine trees far from the hustle and bustle of Capitol Hill.