ipl-logo

Falling Man Essay

675 Words3 Pages

September 11th, 2001 was a day that many Americans remember vividly. This tragic day forever changed the history of our country. Don DeLillo’s Falling Man is a novel about death and the struggle within society in a post 9/11 world. The characters are in a constant struggle with the world around them as well as their own internal conflicts.
In the story Falling Man by Don DeLillo, it begins with the main character, a city worker, Keith Neudecker walking through the streets. This is taking place right after the planes struck the World Trade Center during the terrorist attack in New York City. Keith is walking around, feeling very disoriented and in complete shock. He doesn’t really know where to go at this point, but he decides to make his way …show more content…

He finds Florence and “they begin a brief affair-of-connectedness” (Litt). Keith and Florence’s relationship blossoms into something more as they continue to spend time together. This makes the reader feel sad for his wife Lianne because she does not need any more problems in her life. Lianne is “preoccupied with her own attempts at willed amnesia–about 9/11, about her unspooled marriage, about her strained relationship with her mother, and about her son’s increasingly odd behavior” (Olsen). Keith is working on both relationships at one time, which is not fair to either woman.
Keith also enjoys playing poker. He used to play with his friends before September 11th occurred. His friends were lost inside the tower and unfortunately did not survive. Towards the end of the story, Keith leaves his family and goes to a casino in Las Vegas. Keith decided that he wanted to play poker again and participated in many professional poker tournaments all over the country.
Falling Man is a novel about death as the entire world is suffering the catastrophic event of September 11th, 2001. The characters in this book are not only trying to survive the aftermath, but they are also battling with their own individual issues. They have to figure out how to cope with the pain and confusion they have

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Heroes Of 9/11

    1059 Words  | 5 Pages

    This happens in New York, New York City. Jay Jona is a captain for the fire department. When he gets the call that the North tower got hit he goes to the twin towers. But when he sees the fire he tells his men that there going up there with 100 pounds.

    Read More

  • The Contents Of The Dead Mans Pockets By Jack Finnsey

    941 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although, it is because of his near death experience that he noticed he his job had made him delusional to what really matters. The external conflict of fighting harsh and dangerous conditions on a narrow ledge leads him to rethink how he spent his life, “he would then, abruptly, have had. Nothing“ (). Now, not only is he struggling with the thought of poorly balancing his work and personal life, but he has to stay calm in order to remain on the ledge. This is significant because it proves that sometimes people get caught up on what seems important at the time.

    Read More

  • Daniel Atkinson Argument

    812 Words  | 4 Pages

    Everyone including his parents, Mr. And Mrs. Atkinson and his older brothers, James and Jackson, who had jumped the cliff years ago, excitedly waited for the third of June when the youngest member of the Atkinson family would fulfill the tradition. However, what they didn’t know was that Daniel had a fear of heights that he had hidden from everyone his whole life. He thought he could just keep it a secret and-and no one would ever find out. But it wasn’t easy to hide a fear of eighths when a whole town stood behind you, waiting for you to jump off a cliff 98 feet above ground

    Read More

  • Into Thin Air Essay

    607 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Knowing that any person in the world can climb Mount Everest is amazing. In the novel Into Thin Air written by Jon Krakauer, climbers climb to the highest point of the world. Some everyday people like Jon Krakauer, who is an author hired to write an article about Mount Everest for an adventure magazine and Doug Hansen who is a postal worker climbing Mount Everest for the second time.

    Read More

  • The Illustrated Man Theme Essay

    895 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ray Bradbury wrote a variety of short science fiction stories and added them together to make an overall collection titled The Illustrated Man. The Illustrated Man has stories that all take place in the futuristic, Dystopian America. The overall theme of this novel is accepting one’s fate. Narrowing down the overall theme, the stories of “The Last Night of the World”, “Marionettes, Inc.,” and “Kaleidoscope”, all share the common overall theme of looking back on life and seeing all the things one has done with their life, and the things one never got to do. While one is living, they don’t tend to look back on their life until they know it’s coming to an end.

    Read More

  • How Does Delillo Present The Inevitability Of Death

    1202 Words  | 5 Pages

    Regardless how unique and unparalleled individuals throughout society may seem, there is one inevitable commonality that all of humanity must encounter: death. Don DeLillo presents the inevitability of death through the Gladney family in his post-modern novel White Noise. Through the journey and characterization of protagonist Jack Gladney, readers are capable of recognizing how uncomfortable the subject of death truly is, as well as how individuals repress their fear of dying. However, DeLillo’s also focuses intensely on other aspects of American society, such as consumerism and humanity’s impact on nature, through his unique implementation of literary elements. Analyzing DeLillo’s White Noise through the Marxist, psychoanalytic, environmentalist,

    Read More

  • Logan Thibalt's The Lucky One

    921 Words  | 4 Pages

    Imagine walking across the country with only a dog and a couple books to keep you company. Even in the book I’m reading people find that hard to believe or just insane. After all, who would willingly walk across the country? Well, I have the answer. Logan Thibalt would.

    Read More

  • Human Life In Station 11

    1127 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, she frames human life under two different eras in which they undergo a pandemic. The characters are in their present life living with concerns of their past life, in which ended twenty years ago after a worldwide collapse. Mandel seems to frame human life on both sides to let the reader know how civilization becomes affected through a great catastrophe. The story shows how human life was before the pandemic and its new meaning after the event. Throughout the novel, characters find material things that connect them back to the past.

    Read More

  • Contents Of The Dead Man's Pocket By Jack Finney

    1412 Words  | 6 Pages

    Sometimes for some people all most falling to their death, or just pushing their limits maybe the way to show themselves what is most important in life. This is what happens to the main character in "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" by Jack Finney. In the story, Tom goes through ten minutes of pain, guilt, life changes and dangerous obstacles that he over faced about life. In this story Tom Benecke has two choices go with his wife Clare to the movies or stay home and pretend to do some work for his job.

    Read More

  • The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Essay

    1370 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman explores the cultural collision between the Hmong Lee family and their American doctors. Along with the culture clash, the social stigma against the Hmong family brings to light a lot of the systematic, moral, and ethical issues that can arise in our healthcare. Ultimately, the combination of the cultural clash in medical perspectives, the underlying social stigma, the inadequate treatment, and the miscommunication hindered the proper diagnosis and recovery of led to the demise of the Hmong child. However, many of the problems could have been easily avoided or resolved with more patience, objectivity, and most importantly, cultural competence.

    Read More

  • Hi Howya Doin Literary Analysis

    781 Words  | 4 Pages

    The theme of the story is about the happiness in life so many people have numbed themselves to or feel as though they are forbidden to feel. Through the surprise and ironic death of the protagonist, Oates shows how easily that joy and happiness can disappear or be ripped away. The setting and theme of this story relates to our current society and how individuals within society feel entitled to extreme privacy and personal space and are unable to cope with stress, anxiety and the struggles of everyday life. Oates also depicts and how an invasion of this could trigger irrational reactions to something as small as a

    Read More

  • Analysis Of And Of Clay Are We Created

    1108 Words  | 5 Pages

    The narratives are terrified by the heist and by witnessing a 13-year-old give up and die after sinking into the

    Read More

  • Essay On How 9/11 Changed America

    1611 Words  | 7 Pages

    9/11: The Day That Changed America Forever On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists boarded four planes, all transcontinental flights full of jet fuel. 9/11 became the first of many hijackings in the United States. The terrorists turned two flights into flying weapons of destruction, knocking down America’s tallest buildings. The third plane rammed into the Pentagon and the fourth plane was crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

    Read More

  • The Movie Crash Essay

    809 Words  | 4 Pages

    This eye opening and staggering film directed by Paul Haggis (Crash 2004) portrays the collisions between the people of different ethnicities, races and cultures. Haggis bases the film in a city where most people have cars where most people have cars, Los Angeles, and where people rarely brush against or interact with one another unless there’s a situation that forces them to do so. It gathers the lives of those with completely different backgrounds that intersect with each other in the span of 36 hours. Paul Haggis is to be applauded for taking audiences on a rollercoaster of emotions from the start of the film to the very end. The characters in the film are hidden behind metal and glass where no one in LA even touches or brushes past you.

    Read More

  • Relationships In The Mimic Men By V. S Naipaul

    1110 Words  | 5 Pages

    He had been into a lot of sexual and non-sexual relationship with so many women. However, all the relationship he gets into had never last longer. He got married to Sandra, his fellow school friend in London but has ended his marriage sadly because of his social class and his matters in politics. He ignored his own wife because of his career, thus it makes Sandra so disappointed at him. Before he got married to Sandra, he had a very close relationship with Lieni during his university days in London.

    Read More

More about Falling Man Essay

Open Document