The Falling Man

Looking at this picture, emotions rush through your body making you remember the terrible event that happened on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The story behind this picture has to do with the most horrific day in history; the day terrorists crashed two planes in the towers of the World Trade Center. Fifteen seconds past 9:41 a.m. on September 11, 2001, Richard Drew took the picture of the now world known famous, “The Falling Man.” He jumped head first, like an arrow shooting straight at the earth. Even though he didn’t pick this faith, he seems to embrace it and die by choosing to throw himself off the tower instead of waiting inside in the extreme heat from the fire and burning up. He doesn’t seem frighten about the choice of his action, almost comfortable with it. In the picture, he is frozen, but the truth is that he continued dropping until he disappeared. Though the falling man was not the only person who jumped off.

People call them “jumpers” as if they were some kind of new class. The world watched this terrifying and gruesome pain that those people had to endure when they jumped to the moment they hit the floor. But no witness wished to see it again. Each “jumper” brought terror and shock to America. By jumping, they are just trying to hold on to the life they were leaving behind. For “The Falling Man,” this picture is his gravestone and he was never identified. But in a way, he isn’t falling through the sky next to the tower; he is jumping through a limitless space of memories, as he picks up the speed, he would pass out before he ever hits the ground.