GROUND ZERO by Suzanne Berne
Suzanne Berne has worked as a journalist and has also published book reviews and personal essays as well as three well-received novels, including The Ghost at the Table (2006) and Lucille (2010). In the following essay, which appeared on the New York Times op-ed page in April 2002, Berne describes a personal pilgrimage to the former site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Background on the terrorist attacks of 9/11
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that
destroyed the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center and severely
damaged the Pentagon stunned the nation and the world. The three hijacked
aircraft that crashed into these targets, and a fourth that crashed into
a field in rural Pennsylvania, caused the deaths of some three thousand
people. The names of the nearly three thousand people who were killed in
the September 11 attacks in New York City, Penn[1]Sylvania,
and Washington, DC (as well as those killed in the 1993 World Trade Center
bombings) are inscribed around the edges of the pools.
The
voyage of Suzanne Berne to the 9/11 memorial in Manhattan, which was created
with the names of the dead who are still remembered by the American people, was
the subject of the descriptive essay titled Ground Zero.
Berne
talked about what it was like to visit a place where mourners from all over the
nation and the world gathered to pay respects to the deceased. This text also
explains how the memorial drew people together, demonstrated how proud
Americans were to be Americans, and showed that Americans hadn't forgotten the
attack and their more intense feelings.
Additionally,
she wrote "paid my respects" and "black clothes" to express
the sense of loss that pervaded the nation. Onlookers were filled with despair
as they watched the firefighters remove the dead and clean up the debris. Berne
also expressed her feelings when she first saw the location in her writing,
"black theater into a brilliant afternoon." She created "Ground
Zero" to convey to readers the same emotions and feelings she
experienced when visiting the site where the World Trade Center once stood.