September 11, 2001 was a day that affected every American, including Anne Quindlen who wrote the article “One Day, Now Broken in Two”. In this article she describes the events of September 11, and what the people of this nation have learned from it. While she seems to be addressing the people of this country as a whole, I believe that her message is intended not just for those who lost someone that day, but more for those of us who go through life without the day to day reminders of that morning.
Quindlen describes how the American people go through their familiar routines to suppress the emotions they felt watching “that indelible loop of tape- the plane, the flames, the plane, the fire, the falling bodies, the falling buildings.” The fact that she uses the phrase loop of tape, makes me think that she is addressing those of us who watched from a media distance. But what about those who witnessed it first hand? What about the people who stood watching on the streets, the people who barely escaped from the buildings, or the emergency workers in and around the buildings?
Quindlen points out that for most of us, we thought about things differently and tried to be closer to friends and family members, yet it didn’t take long for us to return to complaining about the airports and the stock market. The country began to heal and move on, but not for those of us who lost loved ones. She uses pathos when she explained that those who experienced loss still have to go through birthdays and anniversaries without some one who was “lost in the cloud of silvery dust.” She says, “Those families are the living embodiment of what the whole nation had first felt and then learned not to feel.” With that statement she seems to suggest that for the rest of us we have learned to become numb to the events of that day.
Overall I think the author is trying to express to Americans that we can never go back to normal. We have to live our lives knowing that there are more important things than her examples of “oversize sneakers and KFC.” She makes herself relatable and credible to the reader because she experienced that day along with the rest of America. By describing her experience the day before 9-11 and how she felt that no day would get worse than that day makes her message even more convincing. We live in a world where bad things happen and Americans need to go through life remembering what she describes as “the mundane and the monstrous.”
4 comments:
I think what the author is saying substantively in her article is very powerful, but i guess i want to see HOW she created that power. I saw that pathos was mentioned as a rhetorical device, but the article wasn't broken down in terms of rhetorical devices, which is what i would have liked to see in this post. I'm itching for more brett.
September 11th is one day that I don't think any of us will ever forget, we all sat there glued to our TV set watching for the latest updates and whatnot. The author's use of pathos and logos do really come into affect her by talking about people who lost their lives that day but what I am really missing is why is she writing about this. We were all affected in some way that day, but it seems to me she is complaining about how we want to move on instead of thinking of those events every single second. In other words, I'm not sure where the author is coming from, did she lose someone close to her or is just being very emotional?
I like that you incorporated the idea of ethos into this analysis when you said she experienced this horror along with the rest of us. I analyzed the same article and I definitely couldn't figure out a way in which she was credible until I read this. I see through your last paragraph that, yeah, she understands what it was like to not think there would be a day as bad as September 10th, and then we woke up to that. I actually had a horrible day on September 10, 2001 and thought about the same thing--life couldn't get worse.But then we realize that things can always get worse. Definitely a good point that she had to go through that same realization with the rest of us.
i agree will mitch's comment. The author sounds a little accusatory, which i think worked to undermine the effectiveness as her message. Not the strongest appeal to pathos...are american's supposed to feel bad about the fact that life moves on even as you sit back and indulge your sorrow?
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