Similarities Between 9/11 Attacks 'And Leap' By Brian Doyle

September 11th 2001 was a monstrosity of a day filled with intense fear, heightened anxiety, and blood curdling screams. The Twin Towers, located in lower Manhattan, New York, were demolished by plane hijackers involved with the group Al-Qaeda. Two skyscrapers that had once seemed to reach for the clouds, now crumbled into dust. This series of events caused world-wide attention, and September 11th will be forever memorialized each year across the United States. Because of this new altitude resulting from this terrorist attack, many writers were motivated to illustrate the actions in their own way to explain their points of view on that bleak day. The authors conveyed the series of events with different attitudes, vocabulary, and writing styles. For instance, “9/11 Attacks” and “Leap” by Brian Doyle are two

contrastingly different pieces that were written about the same fatal catastrophe. While the first piece, “9/11 Attacks” recounts the tragic event, “Leap”, presents the readers with a beautiful and poetic short story that plays with the reader’s emotions. Although “9/11 Attacks” appears to have more of an impact on its audience due to its straightforward facts on September 11th, “Leap” by Brian Doyle is truly more effective because the evidence is not cold, but developed and leaves the reader with a sense of hope.
While comparing the short story “9/11 Attacks” to the piece “Leap” written by Brian Doyle, the first text feels more powerful because the piece is loaded with facts and details about the event. However, the content in this piece can be interpreted as harsh, driving the reader to not finish the text, therefore not encouraging the readers to be educated on this particular event. Too much detail of a horrific occasion such as the September 11th terrorist attacks, can displease or turn away a reader especially if they are grieving over the crisis. Moreover, this article states content that has not been filtered, thus the text contains explicit content like “suicide attacks”,”extensive death”, and “massive explosion” (“9/11 Attacks”). These words can initiate fear and anxiety through the reader, which can stop them from pursuing the rest of the article. It is this quality of human nature that then leads the readers to turn away and not be enlightened on this serious and colossal affair. “9/11 Attacks” uses logic and supportive evidence, also known as logos, to inform the reader; however, logos isn’t going to assist informing the audience if they stop reading because the piece is too violent to continue.

Instead of describing the events of 9/11 in a hard-hitting way, Brian Doyle, the author of “Leap”, presents the suicides of September 11th via jumping, in a elegant and delicate way. Contrary to using severe and blunt words to describe the horrific actions that occurred, the author describes it in a poetic way. In “9/11 Attacks”, the reader is presented a clear picture of the traumatic series of events by using bitter language. On the other hand, in Brian Doyle’s short story, he highlights the positives of September 11th with serene and calm expression. When Doyle illustrated the suicides in this piece, he described bodies falling and hitting the pavement with “such force that there was a pink mist in the air”(Doyle 165). Rather than writing blood, he wrote “pink mist”, this still has the audience understand that the victims in the Twin Towers were jumping off the soaring towers and crashing to the ground, but he describes it as more beautiful and peaceful than gory and brutal. This unconventional approach to the September 11th events is more effective because it shields the horrific events in a more positive light, while still getting to the reader’s head that 9/11 was a gruesome, and frightful invasion.

In contrast to the article “9/11 Attacks”, “Leap” by Brian Doyle leaves the reader feeling rejuvenated causing catharsis.

While “9/11 Attacks” gives the reader a feeling of being informed, it also can fill the audience with despair and melancholy. Additionally, the second piece has more impact on the reader because it also brings a sense of optimism to the brutal attacks on America. “Leap” along with giving the reader hope, also presents the audience with another way to look at a negative event. The piece written by Brian Doyle, describes the jumpings in a positive way. Furthermore, he wrote how this heartbreaking tragedy brought two co-workers, two lovers or two friends together when they leaped and flew off the ledge into the air. Doyle displays the connection that the victims had when they jumped together such as, “A couple leaped from the south tower, hand in hand. They reached for each together and their hands met and they jumped” (Doyle 165). The style Doyle writes with demonstrates a sense of hope to the reader, and using the couple holding hands was a way of connecting with the reader about tragedy and how tragedy brings hope and bonding among

humans.
While the first piece, “9/11 Attacks” has solid information about the series of events, it has what can be referred to as explicit content, which can make the text unpleasant to read. However, the short story “Leap” written by Brian Doyle presents a serene, hopeful picture that portrays the positive side of 9/11, that America bonded together even after such a world-changing event. All writers have their own distinctive language, style of writing and opinion of events, therefore, different writers will have diverse outlooks on September 11th, 2001. The author of “9/11 Attacks” takes opportunity of the attack to present an informational story, while Brian Doyle thinks September 11th is a tragedy that can bring positive change for the future. Even though, September 11th, 2001 was a day of loss for the United States, one outcome of the terrorist attack was a bonding of the nation as a whole. The second the World Trade Center went down, America bonded together a little bit more.