Reading Response

In the article “Hijacked Jets Destroy Twin Towers and Hit Pentagon” by Serge Schemann, the basic structure of the text is expository and in chronological order. Schemann chose this structure because he is writing an article telling us about the events that took place on 9/11 and he is helping us understand why these people did these terrible things and the effect & reactions of people around the world. The structure of this text connects to the authors purpose because of the following reasons. He wanted to tell us about the cause and effect of 9/11, which connects to the chronologically structured text. The tone of this article is very bitter and cold, but also very tragic and frightened.  Schemann says “Hijackers reamed jetliners into each of the New York’s World Trade Center towers yesterday, toppling both in a hellish storm of ash, glass, smoke and leaping victims, while a third jetliner crashed into the pentagon in Virginia.” (first paragraph of article on page 33) which shows us the main events of 9/11 that were so tragic. Schemann also gives us an example of the frightened tone when he states “ ‘These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat, but they have failed,’ a somber president told the nation in an address from the Oval Office shortly after 8:30 p.m.” ( Third paragraph on page 36).

In the poem “The Names” by Billy Collins, the basic structure is a poem. The organization is that the last names of 25 of the 9/11 victims are in alphabetical order.  Collins chose this so that in a way he could recognize all of the 9/11 victims by placing the last names in alphabetical order, which meant he was able to name all of them, without doing that, if that makes sense. The structure of ABC naming relates to the purpose because the purpose is to remember all of the 9/11 heroes and victims as well as bringing back the horrid memories of these terrible attacks. The tone of the text is mournful. Collins is expressing the mournful tone when he says “Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,” (Page 43).

In the poem “We Breathed You In” by Patti Tana, the text is structured as a poem. Tana chose the text structure as a poem, because people can interpret this in different ways, but they are all connected. The purpose of writing this was to remember 9/11 and the victims. The tone that this poem gives off is very sad and mournful. Tana expresses this sad tone when she says “the day you burned, you fell you flew, through new york air, in clouds of smoke, the clouds we feared...” (page 46). Tana also expresses a mournful tone when she writes “my body your body, my hand your hand, take heart dear ones, we breathe you in.” (page 46).