- Explore the statement that Berne's makes that ''nothing' becomes something much more potent, which is absence." (3)
- How does Berne stating that this was her first time to Ground Zero/The Financial District affect you as a reader? As a NYC area resident?
- Select a portion of text with visual details that strikes you as intriguing and analyze why it is effective and what impact it has on you as the reader.
- Compare your experience of visiting Ground Zero or your view as someone who has first-hand experience with the 9/11 tragedy with the author's. Does having this first hand experience influence your reading of the text?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Ground Zero
Please respond to each question in a full paragraph and to two of your peer's comments for a total of 6 posts. Please also post each question as you answer them.
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ReplyDelete1. Explore the statement that Berne's makes that ''nothing' becomes something much more potent, which is absence." (3)
ReplyDeleteIf a person were to look at the WTC site 8 years ago they might say there is nothing there. Bernes says it looks like a construction site. There are trucks, and workers, and scaffolding. To a passer-by that had no idea of what took place there on September 11th 2001, that construction site is “nothing.” Nothing but a construction site. We see construction sites everyday so no big deal. However there is a huge absence on that piece of land. The buildings that used to stand there and the people who worked in them are absent. Looking at the”nothing” is very intense because we know what is absent.
2. How does Berne stating that this was her first time to Ground Zero/The Financial District affect you as a reader? As a NYC area resident?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn’t affect me in any way. She says she is coming to pay her respects. If this was her first trip to New York and her reason to visit was to see Ground Zero that doesn’t raise any questions or concerns from me. I don’t understand why it would affect anyone in general or anyone in the area.
1. Explore the statement that Berne's makes that ''nothing' becomes something much more potent, which is absence." (3)
ReplyDeleteThe statement that Berne’s makes saying that “nothing’ becomes something much more potent, which is absence,” is referring to the site of the World Trade Center. She is looking “nothing” because nothing is what you first see when you look at the World Trade Center site. As Berne states “but once your eyes adjust to what you’re looking at…,” the site of nothing that is in front of you becomes something with much more meaning, absence. Absence of the actual building, and even more so, absence of the loved ones that were lost.
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ReplyDeleteDenis Orellana
ReplyDelete1.I think what he is trying to say is that when you stand and look at something that looks so simple which to most is nothing, there’s a point where you glimps and you capture a picture frozen within sight. The quote say’s, “nothing” becomes something much more potent,” which clearly states that something that becomes out of nothing is way more powerful that something that’s already known. Then it follows with, “which is absence,” to me is saying that even though is not present its still visible in some type of metaphor.
2. How does Berne stating that this was her first time to Ground Zero/The Financial District affect you as a reader? As a NYC area resident?
ReplyDeleteWhen Berne states that this was her first time visiting Ground Zero/ The Financial District, it brought me back to my first time that I went to visit the site. The descriptions of that site that she gives makes me feel as if I am back there again for the first time. The feelings and emotions that I felt came back to me and actually gave me goose bumps as I read and pictured my first visit in my mind. It brings back the memories of the day of the attack and all the feelings that I was feeling standing at Ground Zero for the very first time.
1. The statement Suzanne Berne said "nothing' becomes something much more potent, which is absence." is a strong comment in my eyes. its saying that the thing that use to be there means more then what is there now. Just because the World Trade Center was gone doesnt mean we forgotten about it an all the people that were killed on that day
ReplyDelete2. As the reader I dont have any hate or negative feelings towards her. I'm just a little surprised but i feel it was gud thing she decided to go and go take a look at it at least. It would make a great story for her as a journalist. As a NYC resident I would be Really surprised I mean who doesnt kno about this and the events that happened here.
ReplyDelete3. Select a portion of text with visual details that strikes you as intriguing and analyze why it is effective and what impact it has on you as the reader.
ReplyDelete“Ground zero is a great bowl of light, an emptiness that seems weirdly spacious and grand, like a vast plaza amid the dense tangle of streets in lower Manhattan. Light reflecting off the Hudson River vaults into the site, soaking everything – especially on an overcast morning – with a watery glow. This is the moment when absence beings to assume a material form, when what is not there becomes visible.” (7)
This portion of the text strikes me as a reader because it is so effective in making you feel the energy of Ground Zero as if you were there with her that very day. The way she describes how the light reflecting off the water and into the site can make everything visible when is it not really there. This portion of the text was so effective with giving the readers a visual picture of exactly what Berne was looking at as she stood in front of the site. It was so descriptive and well written that it made me feel as if I was standing right next to her.
4. Compare your experience of visiting Ground Zero or your view as someone who has first-hand experience with the 9/11 tragedy with the author's. Does having this firsthand experience influence your reading of the text?
ReplyDeleteComparing my first visit to Ground Zero to Berne’s experience of her first visit, they are very similar. The cold weather, the massive amounts of people surrounding the site that the author mentioned is all what I experienced as well. The author lists the surrounding memorials and flags and I can picture it all in my head. Having this firsthand experience of visiting Ground Zero definitely influences the reading of this text. It gives me a better understanding of what she is describing and what she is feelings, mainly because I saw all the things that the author is describing and I felt the same feelings and emotions that she was feeling.
1. Explore the statement that Berne's makes that ''nothing' becomes something much more potent, which is absence." (3) When standing there looking at the empty space you realize there use to be the world trade center buildings. Now it’s just a hole that you see. You as a person feel real emptiness inside your heart meaning that your gut was just ripped out of you. This place they now call ground zero was where many people worked and the deaths of many people occurred. As a person you feel real sad. Some people that never witnessed or heard about it were just looking at a construction site. to them it felt like the world trade center was never there and its normal.
ReplyDelete2. Berne stating that this was her first time to Ground Zero/The Financial District does not affect me at all as a reader. I only had visited the world trade center like twice in my entire life that was only when my grandfather or family came to visit from Honduras or another state. I do consider it to be or it was the “The Financial District.” I mean that was the economic workforce, thousands of people had jobs. Those who survived that tragic day are either disabled, many can’t find new jobs, and business lost their business. So I think it was appropriate for her to express her view of how she felt her first time there.
ReplyDelete3. Select a portion of text with visual details that strikes you as intriguing and analyze why it is effective and what impact it has on you as the reader.
ReplyDeleteThe last paragraph in the text Bernes says the day flowed back into itself, and she joined a tide of people. Then goes on to write about all of the wall people wrote on and so forth. That piece of writing stood out to me because I can see in my mind the mass of people around the WTC site. There is a tide of people at Ground Zero no matter what time it is. There so many people it is like going with the flow of the tide. I compare walking around the site to being a salmon swimming up stream, so I made the connection with the tide and the stream.
1). The statement that Berne’s makes is toward the site at Ground Zero. She says that Ground Zero simply looks like a construction site, and because construction sites are so common people would think they are looking at nothing until they adjust their eyes and look at what’s truly there. What they are really seeing is the absence of loved ones who were lost in this tragedy and the destruction of two very important buildings.
ReplyDelete4. The school i went to had an incredible view of the world trade centers. Not only that i was picked up by my parents on that day and we went to liberty state park with my family to take some videos and see what was going on. I can still see the humungous clouds of smoke and the waves of helicopters flying all over new york. I only witnessed their collapses but my father saw how the second plane hit the tower.
ReplyDeleteEverytime i go to grownd zero wether it be to chill or to visit relatives in New York, i feel a big ammount of grief. Im sure the author felt it also there's family that go to ground zero everyday to visit their lost ones. I also personally know friends who lost their parents in the tragedy. It was a very horrible experiences and undescribable you had to see it to believe it.
3. I have passed ground zero before but have never seen any anything besides the plastic orange fences blocking off everything. When Bernie starts talking about looking down at the pit I pictured myself looking down at it watching the trucks go back and forth up and down the access ramp
ReplyDelete2. How it affects me as a reader is that it makes me feel like I was there with berne as she saw ground zero/the financial district. Berne wanted me to see what she saw at ground zero. In a way I kind of did felt like I was there just by reading this.
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ReplyDelete4. Compare your experience of visiting Ground Zero or your view as someone who has first-hand experience with the 9/11 tragedy with the author's. Does having this firsthand experience influence your reading of the text? Yes it does because I was one of those children that was in school that day and heard that the world trade center was bomb. I was shock and was lost for words. So many people died on this day. This tragic day I will never forget. I have walked pass ground zero and all I saw was a whole looking like the Grand Canyon. It touched me deeply thinking about the people that died that day. I feel emptiness.
ReplyDelete1. The statement that Berne’s makes that “nothing” becomes something much more potent, which is absence is referring to what you see when you first arrive at Ground Zero. To most people who walk by everyday it’s just a regular construction site now. Berne’s explains how u could see construction workers, police officers, you could hear jack hammers, and the roar of heavy machinery but once u stop to look at Ground Zero you start to think about what once stood there. Then everything starts to replay in your mind about the tragedy and the lives that were lost.
ReplyDelete3. Select a portion of text with visual details that strikes you as intriguing and analyze why it is effective and what impact it has on you as the reader.
ReplyDeleteHow she described the site is pin point accurate she goes from the weather to the crowds even the metal cross at the site. How she describes kind of draws a picture in your head, if you've been there you can actually see it as you read. The visual that impacted me the most was when they took the dead body out of ground zero as she was eating. How everyone just stopped eating at the same time, makes you feel the emotion of the people at time.
3. Berne wrote, “Ground Zero is a great bowl of light, an emptiness that seems weirdly spacious and grand, like a vast plaza amid the dense tangle of streets in lower Manhattan. Light reflecting off the Hudson River vaults into the site, soaking everything-especially on a overcast morning-with a watery glow. “This is the moment where absence begins to assume a material form, when what is not there becomes visible.” This is paragraph seven, and it’s so important because here in this very paragraph she gives her view or main point of her first quote, “nothing” becomes something much more potent, which is absence. Also the scenery description is remarkable. It clearly gives you a visual of what she sees.
ReplyDelete3. "suddenly you notive the periphery, the skyscraper shrouded in black plastic, the boarded windows,the steel skeleton of the shattered Winter Garden. Suddenly there are the firefighters, the waiting ambulance on the otherside of the pit, the police on every corner. Suddenly there is the enormous cross made of two rusted girders." this text is intriguing to me because this is Berne first time seeing groundzero and she was able to make a complete detail on the structure and the events that happened. it brings back memories of the towers and the destruction that caused it. this is very effective to catch anyones attention because we all still remember the towers.
ReplyDelete2. I wasn’t too surprised that it was Berne’s first time at Ground Zero. A lot of people I know have never even been there and they live in Manhattan, and a lot of them have never seen the Twin Towers up close either. It is kind of a shame but in some ways it’s not something too shocking, Most New Yorkers don’t visit much places in New York, I think it’s even safe to say that the tourist that come from out of town know New York better than some of the residents. Life in New York is great, but it’s too fast paced, we sometimes don’t have time to stop and smell the roses.
ReplyDelete4. I don’t remember seeing the world trade center before it was destroyed. My first time experience it is nothing compared to anyone else’s because it did not affect my life in any way. After reading Berne’s entry it makes me want to go back to ground zero and actually take a look at what is left of the towers and maybe appreciate it.
ReplyDelete1. Berne means that looking at all the rubble and what was going on around ground zero looks like nothing. But, when you actually look at what going on and realize what ground zero once was you really are looking at something bigger than just a construction site.
ReplyDelete4. My experience in visiting Ground Zero I saw nothing but sorrow and tears. the wall with the names of all the people that died on that days. Seeing teddy bears which I assumed belong to childrens. After reading the text I see the journalist, Suzanne Berne, had the same experience as all of us who visited that land mark.
ReplyDelete4. Compare your experience of visiting Ground Zero or your view as someone who has first-hand experience with the 9/11 tragedy with the author's. Does having this first hand experience influence your reading of the text?
ReplyDeleteI relate to the text in a couple ways. My first visit to Ground Zero was about 10 months ago. It was at the end of last year and there was the skeleton of a building that was in the place of the hole in the ground that Bernes speaks about. I was struck with the “unbelievable” factor Bernes was talking about. With my experience of being there it did help me picture what it was like back in 2002, basically right after it happened. What really stuck out to me was her talking about buying a ticket. What is that a ticket to? What would anyone want to see that thedy couldn’t see from the street? The security worker at NYSE asking her, “You want a ticket to the disaster?” really made me think. First I thought, wow, Americans don’t waste time getting back in business. And who is buying/selling these tickets? Where is the money going? That makes me think further. I have seen a tour of people go through the World Financial Center. I wondered then, is someone is making money off of it or is the money going to the family of the victims? I don’t know if it influenced me, or just made me think about that again.
2. How does Berne stating that this was her first time to Ground Zero/The Financial District affect you as a reader? As a NYC area resident? It does not affect me in anyway. I’m just happy that she took that out of her bust schedule to pay respect to those who died that day. We all have busy lives or schedules so when you have time to check it out say your blessings for those who died. As for me I walked pass there or drove pass there several times and I always have the same feeling which is sadness.
ReplyDelete2.) When Berne says this was her first time visiting the site It doesn’t affect me much at first because I never felt right about visiting myself but it did make me think about when I was in third or fourth grade and I would sit in my chair during one of my classes and just stare out the window directly at the two towers. Then I thought of the day the towers went down and that’s when it started to affect me more. I was the first in my class to see the towers get hit by a plane I was watching and when I jumped out my seat and ran to the windows I saw the smoke and heard my teacher yelling at me to return to my seat. When she saw what I was watching it seemed like the whole scene stilled and fast forwarded at the same time and I remember the nauseating feeling I got from watching my two favorite buildings fall.
ReplyDelete3.“and by the act of our visiting – whether we are motivated by curiosity or horror or reverence or grief,or by something confusing that combines them all – that space fills up again.”
ReplyDeleteI like this portion of the text because berne saw the reality that time moves on. Yes, it was a sad thing that something like 9/11 had to happen. Years go by, and the people that were lost will be replaced, but truly never forgotton.it mad me sad in a way but it also shows that no matter what the bad times bring, the people will always unite back.
3. I’d have to say that the paragraph that moved me most for some reason was when Berne was on the second floor of the Deli and she saw the honor guard carrying someone’s remains up the ramp and that everyone got up to either get a better look or to pay their respect. I’d like think that the people that got up were paying their respects. It was such a sad and horrible day and I still remember it like it was yesterday. Every detail of what she saw is accurate, you can tell she was really taking in everything she saw.
ReplyDelete2. It does not really affect me at all. I have never been to New York and had the plan to go visit ground zero. I would just end up passing it going somewhere else or if one of my friends decided to go visit.
ReplyDelete4. Yes, having first hand experience influences reading of the text. This is because when you have a first hand experience with something as tragic as the 9/11 incident, you usually don’t forgot something like that. It stays in a person’s memory probably for the rest of their lives. If a person reading didn’t have a personal connection with it, they won’t be able to relate and care for it nearly as much as someone who was right there.
ReplyDelete2. It surprised me that it was Berne’s first time at Ground Zero because everyone I know visited Ground Zero more than two times. Even my family members who visit from other states love taking a trip to New York and make a stop at Ground Zero. Also it is so easy to get to, for the people in the tri-state area its only a train ride away. Some people just walk by it on their way to work or while they’re shopping in New York. So it was surprising that it was her first time visiting Ground Zero.
ReplyDelete4. I went to ground zero shortly after the tragedy happened. I lived in new York at the time and it was a horrifying experience. That this had happened right in your back yard. That so many people lost their lives. When I went to Ground Zero I remember seeing volunteers helping to clean up the place, it was still very dusty and gloomy, and there was a lot of people around just looking, in complete shock and sadness. But at the same time, you felt a unity with everyone who was around you and it made you proud to be an American. I know people who have lost someone in this tragedy and they will never be ok with it. I’m grateful for not having lost my dad being that he worked so close by. It was a day that I probably will never forget. And I think that none of us should.
ReplyDelete1.) This statement refers to the void that was filled with the endless thoughts of people from all over the world and here in this country. The author expresses how this incident brings everyone together to pay their respects to the dark void the towers once stood upon. The “nothing” that is in the ground turns into something because to everyone this is a monument; a gravesite that holds the bodies and spirits of the people that had careers in this building and everything is wiped away their work and legacies buried at the site of Ground zero.
ReplyDelete2.) Knowing that this was her first time to Ground Zero affects me by knowing that the very first time she visited this site, she was moved by the ceremonial acts displayed by the tourists and residents. The site itself brought her to write about her own experience to this memorial site.
ReplyDelete3.) “Ground Zero is a great bowl of light, an emptiness that seems weirdly spacious and grand, like a vast plaza amid the dense tangle of streets in lower Manhattan.” This quote strikes me in such a way because what the author is trying to tell us is that this Great bowl of light is the light that attracts everyone it brings us closer almost like a grand opening of a new store or plaza. She helps us to understand the attractiveness of this site on a deeper level.
ReplyDelete1.The statement that Berne's makes that ''nothing' becomes something much more potent is about the area of construction of Ground Zero. Here lie what once was one of the great wonder of the world now is gone. Through the feeling of those who admire it or those who once lost their love one in this very spot the image is build even though absence in visual.
ReplyDelete4.) I didn’t get to visit the spot where 9/11 happened however, the people who had a firsthand experience would have a greater connection to the article than I would. They would probably have a lot more emotions and vivid descriptions toward their experience to help them to relate to the author.
ReplyDelete2.As a reader I feel that Berne is quite out of place since she never been to the Financial district before, yet she come here to write about it after the area collapsed. Consider her to be a NYC resident to never pass through that area, I must ask “Is she avoiding something there?”
ReplyDelete3.The portion of the text that strikes me intriguing is the part “Everyone in the dining room……For a moment, everything paused”. It strikes me since the author describes it as if time itself has frozen. This give great interest since it shows the intensity of the situation. It’s quite a change of flow from how she was telling the story. Before it was just descriptions of image now there is that sudden strong feeling of united since everyone act the same way and same time.
ReplyDelete3. Select a portion of text with visual details that strikes you as intriguing and analyze why it is effective and what impact it has on you as the reader. It was when she said “Ground Zero is a great bowl of light, an emptiness that seems weirdly spacious and grand, like a vast plaza amid the dense tangle of streets in lower Manhattan”. What you are actually looking at is the loved ones of people that died. She describes it as a bowl of light meaning empty. There were two buildings in that bowl of light and now it’s gone. As a reader, I feel sad knowing that it’s empty. Her description is vivid so it allows you to feel the same feeling she feeling. In your head is just a bowl of light and to other its horrible images.
ReplyDelete3.Personally the section that struck me as effective and intriguing were the short paragraphs (4-7). I found it to be impactful because it was an interesting way to describe the scenario. What I also found interesting is how her interpretation of her initial impression is relatable. Berne describes Ground Zero as construction site filled with bulldozers, cranes, trucks trafficking in and out of the site. Its very human like to try to rationalize especially with a disaster of this magnitude. Another visual detail I thought was effective was how she described it as a vast emptiness. To think not too long ago there stood two massive towers and now all remained was “nothing” leaves an impression.
ReplyDelete4.Well I never get to go see the area after it collapse. For that I still able to keep the two towers still standing there in my mind. If I were to go and visit the collapse area it wouldn’t effect my reading of the text since it existence won’t be demolish in my memories.
ReplyDelete4). As I stated before I was one of the first in my class to watch this disaster happen and it affected me greatly after. I couldn’t focus in school because every time I would look over all I would see is a big emptiness in the sky where the towers stood in place. Every time I looked it was as if I could see the ghostly images of the towers fit back into that space like a puzzle piece. I didn’t visit the Ground Zero site but it still makes me feel effects me when I read about what it all looks like now through another’s eyes.
ReplyDelete4.I remember visiting Ground Zero with my father a couple of years after the attack. It was a bit different from her experience visiting the site. I remember seeing a large crowd of people gathered paying their respects to those who lost their lives that day. I saw people cuddled together consoling those who lost loved ones. It was pretty awe inspiring to see all these strangers united. I felt overwhelmed with grief but happiness because it portrayed the potential in all of us to do good. In a world that seems indifferent it was a beautiful sight to see people so empathic. Having first hand experience influenced me because as I read it conjured up memories and powerful visuals of the day of the attack.
ReplyDelete3). The text that intrigues me the most is in paragraph 11, when Berne’s talks about the elderly man who is talked to his son and said “I watched those towers being built. I saw this place when they weren’t there.” I found this sad because the man who is talking was obviously very greatly affected by what happened on September 11th. You can feel it when the writer notes how he struggles through his words, I could only imagine how he must feel watching something being created and destroyed right before his eyes.
ReplyDelete2.This being Berne’s first visit to NYC affected me as a reader because it conveys the scope September 11th had on people not only from this area. For whatever the reason, whether it was “curiosity or horror or reverence or grief” people from all over the world were drawn to ground zero.
ReplyDelete1.Berne effectively conveys to the reader the realization that this was more than just a vast emptiness. She states when you first look at ground zero its looks like construction site but then it settles in that this was the twin towers and countless people lost their lives that day. Its almost like “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone” Its hard to grasp what was there until its gone.
ReplyDelete1. The statement that Berne’s makes saying that “nothing’ becomes something much more potent, which is absence,” is referring to the site of the World Trade Center. If people who know nothing of what happened 8 years were to go there today they would see nothing. Even people who do know would say they see nothing. Nothing but a big hole and worker all around, but we all know what was once there. We all know of the rand sky scrapers that stood tall in the light of the sun. The fray “nothing’ becomes something much more potent, which is absence,” is just another way of saying you don’t know what you have on till it’s gone.
ReplyDelete2. I can’t say it rely say that it affect me, because I myself have not been to Ground Zero. Though the way she describes the site makes it seem like I’m there too. I can just close my eyes and almost see what she sees. The emotion that run throw me when I think of that day come back.
3. “Ground zero is a great bowl of light, an emptiness that seems weirdly spacious and grand, like a vast plaza amid the dense tangle of streets in lower Manhattan. Light reflecting off the Hudson River vaults into the site, soaking everything – especially on an overcast morning – with a watery glow. This is the moment when absence beings to assume a material form, when what is not there becomes visible.” (p7) This portion of the text strikes me because of the emotion that it creates. It fills me with emotions of sadness and wonder. Were once stood grand buildings of beauty now sit a massive sea of light.
4. I have not visited Ground Zero nor was I there when 9/11 happened. I was at school when it happened. I don’t think they even told us. All I remember about that day is a big clawed of smoke, people walking, and not getting home in till late at night because the bus was stock in traffic. I also remember crying lot of crying when I found out.
5. I must say that Jessica Esteves answer to the question Explore the statement that Berne's makes that ''nothing' becomes something much more potent, which is absence." Is a veer interesting and intriguing way of look at it.
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