Response Paper “Falling Man” by Don Delillo

617 Words3 Pages
In the “Falling Man” Don DeLillo attempts to explore the many facets of the human emotion when face with their mortality. From the beginning vision that is created of a man in shock after a horrific event and how he see the foundation of his life around him in a new light: “It was not a street anymore but a world, a time and space of falling ash and near night.” “The roar was still in the air, the buckling rumble of the fall. This was the world now. Smoke and ash came rolling down streets and turning corners, busting around corners, seismic tides of smoke, with office paper flashing past, standard sheets with cutting edge, skimming, whipping past, otherworldly things in the morning pall.” Page 3 With these descriptive words Don forces us to view the world through the eyes of Keith, a man that just survived the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Though Keith’s eyes the stark world with haunting image of mortality all around can be visualize. Keith’s foundation of live was shattered in those moments and any semblance of his past life is now gone from his reality forever. The only thing Keith can grasp onto now is a foundation from a past live, one that holds intimacy, love and sex: “It wasn’t just those days and nights in bed. Sex was everywhere at first, in words, phrase, half gestures, the simplest intimation of altered space.” Page 7 Keith started out in the book seeking a safe foundation where he can recover from his trauma and try to rebuild his life anew with estranged wife Lianne and son Justin. However his male persona would not allow him to be protected by his estrange wife and child so as the book progress Keith starts to pull away from his family and the safe haven that he had desperately sought out at the beginning of the book. These moments of separation can be seen through short encounter with the owner of a briefcase

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