Words are powerful. Emotions are powerful. Disasters are devastating. War is devastating. Put them all together and you get one amazing writing piece. Updike thrusts the reader completely into the moment of 9/11. Just like the day it happened. It was unbelievable. Updike gives us a taste of this, "...there persisted the notion that, as on television, this was not quite real; it could be fixed; the technocracy the towers symbolized would find a way to put out the fire and reverse the damage." I really liked this sentence. It shows how real the event was. Like his mind could not wrap itself around the likeness of the towers burning.
One of the strongest sentences and most visual was: "...within an hour, as my wife and I watched from the Brooklyn building's roof, the south tower dropped from the screen of our viewing; it fell straight down like an elevator, with a tinkling shiver and a groan of concussion distinct across the mile of air." Updike uses a simile here to help the reader visualize the event more clearly. Which makes the reader feel like they were almost there.
What really got me was the last sentence: "The fresh sun shone on the eastward facades, a few boats tentatively moved in the river, the ruins were still sending out smoke, but New York looked glorious." Updike uses "The fresh sun" to represent a new day. That the worst is over and the world keeps turning. He then moves on to use the word "tentatively". Which makes me think of the birds coming back after a storm. And then all of a sudden he uses the word "glorious". It was a new way to look at the dawning day. The twin towers had fell but New York had survived. The days go on, tentatively, slowly, carefully, but surely.
Hey Anissa! I definitely agree with you that strongest sentence was "...within an hour, as my wife and I watched from the Brooklyn building's roof, the south tower dropped from the screen of our viewing; it fell straight down like an elevator, with a tinkling shiver and a groan of concussion distinct across the mile of air." I loved this sentence too. It does not just describe what occurred on this day, but you can visualize what did too. I honestly felt like I was there. My favorite part of the sentence was how it described the tower fell straight down like an elevator. That is a great simile that really touched me. Once again, I totally agree that this is the strongest sentence in the reading.
ReplyDeleteYou used some really great quotes from the essay Anissa! I agree that those sentences really bring the realness of the event home. The last sentence also really got me. I think for me it was the way he used positive words after describing such a terrible event. I agree with you that when he used "The fresh sun" he was using it to represent a new day. When he said "New York looked glorious" I was surprised. I do understand though that he was probably referring to the fact that New York survived and was still going, but it seemed strange to me to refer to it as glorious after so many people had died and were hurt. That sentence definitely makes you think about it, which must have been Updike's point.
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