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The Falling Man Essay Example

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The Falling Man Essay Example
Kaytlin Ferraro

On the morning of September 11, 2001 millions of people were in shock the moment they received news that the World Trade Center was hit. The images from this horrific day flooded the media’s television screens and newspaper articles. Perhaps the most gruesome images shown were those of people jumping out of the building as they were collapsing. Tom Junod, a writer for the Esquire magazine, illustrates his perspective of this shocking incident through pictures, media coverage, and depicting people’s reactions in his article The Falling Man. Tom Junod’s article should be read by anyone who believes they have felt all there is to feel from the 9/11 attack. He will prove otherwise that there is indeed still much emotion to be felt even 10 years after the happenings of that day. Tom Junod brings back the almost forgotten, painful recollections, of the morning of September 11.
Tom Junod put one particular photograph into perspective to convey the tenderness himself and others felt for the people who were forced to jump from the World Trade Center. A photo of an unidentified man falling from the building was poetically depicted by Junod. “In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in the last instants of life, embraced it” (Junod 1). The man in the photograph is portrayed by Juond as almost angelic like as seen in this quote. I believe he created this angelic-like feature of the image to bring about awareness to his readers that the people jumping from the World Trade Center carried a sense of innocence with their suicide jump.
Very little has been written about the 200+ people who jumped to their deaths from the World Trade Center on 9/11. The photo of a man falling, taken by Richard Drew, was shown through newspapers once and never again. Junod brings this photo back to life and portays it to be

The tenderness Junod felt is shown throughout his article in a way the almost

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