Personal Narrative Of 9/11 By Thomas Beller

671 Words3 Pages

How much do you know about September 11th, 2001? In the city of New York, many people lost the lives of family members, loved ones, and friends. A lot of people went through a tragic time in America’s history. In the personal narrative that Thomas Beller writes, he uses diction, imagery, details, and sentence structure to set the melancholy tone of a tragic event of September 11th. Throughout Beller's narrative he uses diction to help set the tone. He uses the words like "element of panic" and "a nervous energy" to create a tone of suspense (Beller 60). The words "urgency and less mirth" also help set this tone (Beller 60). The tone changes throughout the personal narrative. Beller uses "gray sky billowing" to help change the tone (Beller …show more content…

He explains the Ashen Guy as a “snowman, except instead of snow, he was covered in gray, asbestos colored ash” (Beller 61). As a reader, one can paint a picture of this in his or her mind; his imagery helps to define what the Ashen Guy looked like. The Ashen Guy described what it was like to be in the building when the incident occurred: “There was smoke, but it wasn’t fire smoke, it was dry wall smoke and dust. The fire was above us” (Beller 61). This quote in particular comes from the Ashen Guy who was in the building. Throughout the personal narrative, the surroundings of the crowd become that of a scary movie. Beller’s choice of words show the fear of the crowd: “The whole street paused, froze, screamed, some people broke into tears, many people brought their hands up to their mouths, everyone was momentarily frozen…” (Beller 62). The reader can visualize what the crowd looks like by the language used. They cannot believe what has happened. It seems impossible. Beller describes other objects being obscure: “Cop cars parked at odd angles, their red sirens spinning. The policemen were waving their arms, shouting…” (Beller 60). The overall impression of the language that Beller uses shows the bewilderment and shock that the crowd is feeling. The use of the language used puts fear in the melancholy tone of the