30. The Statue of Liberty

 

    Let’s picture the year 1910, you come from a very poor background and are hoping to achieve a better future or maybe you are just trying to start over; it doesn’t really matter. Then an idea comes to you: What if I go to America? What if I could really improve my situation? So you pack your few things, buy a boat ticket with the few money you have left and finally hop onto the boat. During the long journey, you can only think of the things you will achieve and, for the first time, you have hope. That sense of hope only grows as you see a tall woman, holding a book and lifting a torch to the sky. You are in America, the land of the free.

    Even though the Statue of liberty now represents hope, freedom and future; originally it didn’t exactly mean that. The statue was a gift from France, given to America in 1886, to congratulate the country for their success towards building a viable democracy after the American Civil War in 1865. Having a 35-foot waistline and a size 879 shoe, the Statue of Liberty was made by the French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, creator of the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty has a hidden message from a group of French Republicans to their authoritarian government (Napoleon III); it expressed the desire to magnify the importance of freedom against oppression.

    Apart from the message from the French Republicans, the statue of liberty has lots of symbols. Describing her from head to toes, her crown has seven points that represent the seven seas or the seven continents. The inscription on the table she is holding has “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI” (July 4th 1776), the day of the Declaration of Independence. At her feet she has a broken chain of slavery, meaning freedom. In her base, we can find a copy of the Declaration of Independence and a safe that contains various objects belonging to participants at the opening of the pedestal in 1886. Finally, the statue’s location is strategic, since it’s located at the entrance of New York’s port, considered the gateway to the United States.

    All in all, although the Statue of Liberty is only a bunch of copper, steel and cast iron put together; it represents so much more: Freedom, hope, a friendship between two countries, a warm welcome to everyone and, in a way, The United States of America.


Related to suggested topic 21: Discrimination