Chaos In Thomas Beller's Ashen Guy Essay

736 Words3 Pages
Chaos Arguably the most tragic event in our nation’s history occurred on September 11, 2001 when terrorist planes crashed into the Twin Towers. Devastation, pain, and shock coursed through America. Memorials of all kinds now adorn this country, whether they be in the form of books, speeches, stories, or monuments in honor of that fateful day. Thomas Beller was one of many who decided to remember those lost in the form of his story, “Ashen Guy”. Thomas Beller creates a chaotic tone to convey the tragic, and life-changing event that occurred on September 11, 2001 in his “after” story, “Ashen Guy”, based in Lower Broadway, New York. Beller creates the panic and hurry of his chaotic tone through Diction. Diction, by definition, is the connotation of the word choice. Throughout the reading Beller uses words like panic, nervous, sped, smoky, urgency, collapsed, smoldering, shaking, different, radiated, explosion, thrown, fell, inflamed, blood host, evacuate, screaming, unidentified, darkening, billowing, hit, force, froze, and rumbling. All of these words were specifically chosen by Beller to make the reader feel on edge. All of these words relate to one tone: chaos. When these words are used together in a story, along with other descriptive word choices, readers can’t help but to sit on the edge of their seats. To devour each word and…show more content…
The details a writer omits or includes are detrimental to the readers perspective of the story. Beller includes many random details in the hope that the tone will be made obvious. One detail used in the story “Ashen Guy” was: “a blue oxford shirt with a tie”. While some people would assume this detail was there to fill the story others would know it was there to allow the story to develop. To show the odd absurdity that a businessman would be covered in ash in the middle of the day leaving all the chaos behind
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    hectic and frenzied. Many people have went on to write stories about what they experienced. Thomas Beller wrote one as if he were watching the events unfold. In “The Ashen Guy: Lower Broadway, September 11, 2001”, Beller creates a chaotic tone by using diction and imagery. Thomas Beller tells about the 9/11 event through the eyes of a regular businessman in New York. When Beller put together “Ashen Guy”, his job was to make the whole scene feel frantic and chaotic because that is exactly how

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