Today in class we discussed the multiple types of genres and which was the most effective. When we were told to think of a topic that is described or illustrated using multiple different genres it made me think of the September 11 tragedy.
Last Friday was September 11, so on that day I saw several things in remembrance of the day and the lives lost. One thing in particular I saw that I thought was incredibly interesting was a show on the Discovery channel. I didn't start watching this until about 12:30 AM, and I only watched it because miraculously my parents were still awake and they were watching it with my brother. Once I sat down, I was immediately drawn in for about two hours.
The show was a compilation of different videos that people had taken on September 11 (2001). The videos started around 8 AM (NY time) when the first plane hit the Trade Center. They showed both crashes, and hundreds of different views from all of the people who had been taping it that day. There were people who submitted videos from New Jersey, and those were pretty interesting because they were watching from across the river and could still see everything perfectly clear.
The videos continued to document the happenings of the rest of the day. There were some taken by people inside of one of the Trade Centers as people were herding out of the stairwells and from the subway systems underneath the Trade Center. Other videos were taken by people in buildings a few blocks away from the Trade Centers. These people could see everything, including the people on the top floors of the towers jumping out their windows. The next view was of the towers actually crashing down. The people who were in the streets walking away from the towers started sprinting, but no one could see a thing due to the enormous black clouds of smoke, dust, and debris that were engulfing them. The videographers themselves started screaming things like "shut the window!" and "duck!" and "stand back!" during this portion of the show. In one of the videos the windows that the camera person was standing behind were completely smashed in once the tower fell and the dust cloud erupted.
Throughout this whole show, none of my family members said a word. We were all so into what was happening on TV. Watching the show brought back the memories of that day. I remember being in fourth grade, Mr. Buhalog's class. Some parents started pulling kids out of school, and the teachers told us that something horrible had happened but they couldn't tell us what it was. I walked home from school with my neighbor, and her mom told us what had happened. I didn't really realize how big it was until I turned on the news and saw the videos of people jumping out of the windows from the top of the buildings.
My point in bringing all of this up again was that I thought the History channel did a fantastic job of getting people to think about September 11, and remember the day. Up until that point, I knew that it was September 11, but I hadn't really thought about everything that happened that day and how immensely things were changed in America after it. The show had the definite aspect of pathos, because it "tugged on the heartstrings" of the viewers and really got through to you.
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Your post is very insightful. I clearly remember that day also. I think as time has passed, I've forgotten just how significant this event was. Thanks for reminding me just how serious terrorist attacks are!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember there ever being any coverage like this in years prior. It is amazing how years later we still are stunned by such an event. I remember being in Mr. Buhalog's class too and how he took time at the end of the day to tell us that something terrible had happened and how we needed to hope and pray it didn't come as far as Wisconsin. It's amazing how vivid that one day still can be.
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