Invisioning Ground Zero

In Suzanne Berne's essay Ground Zero her use of vivid description makes one feel as if they were there with her, experiencing the whole thing for themselves. One line that I really enjoyed was," "nothing" becomes something much more potent, which is absence." To people visiting Ground Zero, that's what they see. Nothing. Going into that one should know that they are not going to see the towers burning down, and all the chaos that went on that day, but to me if I were visiting, that is what I would anticipate to see. The way she puts all of it into words just seemed to really make sense to me that nothing, is something, which is absence. The way Berne goes into such vivid detail about the sights she sees while visiting Ground Zero is great. Personally when reading it I could see the "construction workers in hard hats" and I could hear the "beep-beep-beep of trucks backing up, the roar of heavy machinery." When Berne mentioned the elderly man standing next to her I could almost feel his sadness that he felt standing before "the absence."

I actually really liked this essay. When I heard our first blog had to be over a reading assignment I was kind of bummed really. But this was a good one. Berne did a really good job of making it feel as if I had been to Ground Zero myself. I could hear the sounds, see the images, and almost feel the same emotion as she did. Reading Ground Zero also made it easier to understand the essay's that we will be writing throughout the next week. It was a good choice for us to read this, and very helpful.