"Ground Zero" Response

Through Suzanne Berne’s article “Ground Zero,” Berne is able to depict the environment created by the destruction of the Twin Towers, and she explains the significance of the lack of something in a large city.  Berne begins explaining this concept by describing the surrounding environment where the buildings once stood.  She then mentions the children, old couples, and middle-aged couples; all watching “where there was nothing to see.”  The gap where the buildings once stood, although it is nothing now, made the narrator says the nothingness is really an absence.  Even though the buildings are gone, there is now what appears to be a construction site, with all of the jackhammer, scaffolding, and trucks.  Berne then goes on to mention that because ground zero appears to be a construction site, it instills hope in its viewers who wonder what the open lot could become. 

    Overall, this essay was entertaining to read.  It was interesting how Berne was able to put a somewhat optimistic spin on such a grave event, while also providing the reader with a realistic image of what Berne saw.  Through this image, people that have never been to ground zero are able to feel as if they have seen the aftermath of this important event.  An example of this would be “Ground zero is a great bowl of light, and emptiness that seems weirdly spacious and grand.”