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 …show more content…

The family of Noberto Hernandez opposed the thought that they had any relation to the man in the photograph because they believed he would never do such a thing. They believed that jumping out of the burning building was a sign of a betrayal of love. Families in the article thought of the man jumping as a loss of hope and a betrayal of love. On the contrary, Stewart interviewed the mother of Jonathan Briley, to find out if the man in the photograph was really her son or not. She said it was possible and did not reject the thought as did the Hernandez family. She found the jumpers to be a sign of a loss of hope. Is it really a betrayal of love or a loss of hope? I believe it’s a sign of bravery. However, this bravery is either encouraged or discouraged by the American people.
If you were to ask people from all over the globe to explain their reaction to “The Falling Man” there would be a variety of differences. His ending statement seemed to say that we all need to look deep within ourselves and find our own path in dealing with this tragedy. If the man falling were deeply religious, then jumping would be out of the question, which would explain the Hernandez’s reaction. Yet, one cannot be sure how one would respond if placed in the same circumstance. Two thoughts that were missing might be seen as insensitive or dispassionate. The answer is revealed by asking two questions. First, how do we know that some of the people didn’t