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Ground Zero By Suzanne Berne Analysis

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Recommended: The human experience in literature

Suzanne Berne starts out describing Ground Zero with the sense of the moist air of the earl spring season in New York City. She finds a large crowd of people from various nations waiting patiently in line. In the third paragraph, her symbolic description captures our attention when she describes the following: “Nothing is what it first looked like, the space that is now ground zero. But once your eyes adjust to what you are looking at, "nothing" becomes much more potent, which is absent." Berne expresses her emotional feelings revealed through this paragraph. To someone who has no knowledge of the existing twin towers, ground zero is just an empty space; however, to someone like Berne, this empty space once stood filled with thousands of lives. Her mind is recalling the tragic event that took place on September 11 2001. She witnessed the twin towers collapse via a news broadcast on television. Berne's flashbacks and emotional feelings continue in the next couple of paragraphs. She incorporates the surreal sound of the site, the pound of jackhammers, …show more content…

Her figurative language directs the audience not only to see the images of what she was observing, but also to fill our ears with the elaborate sounds. She brings her journal to life by using figurative language to carefully describe her emotional feelings. "Pay my respect”, “black coats”, “little cemetery", "unbelievable". Her description goes as follows; the sound of the construction site, the moist air of March, the touch of the aluminum being pressed, the taste of pastrami sandwiches being made and the sight of Ground Zero filled with its solemn visitors. A sense of sadness fell upon me as I read through Berne's journal. She states, "nothing" becomes something much more potent", the devastation needs not to leave any trace to recall the tragedy event to the families of the victims and the

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