Analysis of the inner world by william langewiesche

William Langewiesche is an author who attended Stanford University with a degree in cultural anthropology. Langewiesche was the only writer given full access to the World Trade Center site after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

That opportunity gave him an inside scoop and helped him write an article titled, “ The Inner World.” Throughout the piece, he argued how the falling of the towers made the city itself, stronger. It brought them together. In the article, his purpose, audience, pathos, and evidence allows the audience to understand fully that even though something so terrifying happened to innocent people, the city chose to grow stronger and remember those who left us.

One of the audiences he attracts is anyone who lost someone to 9/11. These readers are given an inside scoop of what was going on before, during, and after the insane attack. His word choices pull the readers in as he carefully describes in depth and details of what the scene was like that day. He states, “ The powder was made primarily of crushed concrete. The waves generated winds that pushed it through the streets in dense, choking clouds and lifted it to mix with smoke and darken the morning. Then all the white paperwork floated down on the city as if in mockery of the dead.” This quote gives the audience a feel as to what it was like to be there and how they can all relate by imagining being there. An additional audience that Langewiesche attracts is the everyday person. The world is constantly changing and sadly it is even more so dangerous nowadays. When the Twin Towers collapsed it was all over the news and people from all over were delivered grief straight from a screen.

If you were to ask someone where they were and what they were doing when they found out, most of them were old enough to remember and describe the exact moment detail for detail. The planes may have crashed in New York, but the impact affected the whole world.

Langewiesche uses pathos to make the reader not only to feel sympathy but to also make them aware of what these people went through that day and every day after that. He does this many times by stating, “ The suddenness of the transformation was difficult to accept. It had taken nearly one brief morning, merely twenty seconds of collapse, and now all that remained standing of the Twin Towers were a few skeletal fragments of the lower walls, the vaguely gothic structures that reached like supplicating hands toward the sky.” This makes one reflect on how nothing is guaranteed. There is always that saying that in the blink of an eye, all you know could be gone. Your everyday routine could be changed within a matter of seconds. Instead of screaming and panicking, the people of New York saw that it was out of their hands and adjusted to the new life that they now had to live with. He is showing us here how raw and real he is being by going into detail the scene of the atmosphere. There was nothing much left after but the people never lost hope. “ After the dust storms settled, people on the streets of Lower Manhattan were calm. They walked instead of running, talked without shouting, and tried to regain their sense of place and time.” You feel heart warmed that these people went through such a hard disaster and lost so many loved ones, but after it all happened they were calm. And it is not a sense of them not having any feeling, but that they saw what happened and absorbed it. Made the best of what they had and took a step back to examine the problem instead of being negative and not helping the situation. The chaos stopped and it makes you reevaluate all that we know as a society. The author has now hooked the audience and reveals to them the true purposes of his story.

The author’s purpose in this piece is to make us aware of how the devastating tragedy of 9/11 affected the lives of so many people. These people that were uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, parents, significant others, all lost in a matter of seconds. He wants us to understand who all were hurt during this hard time and as we continue to read, we see how it was not just the victims who were in that building or on the plane, but rather the entire city. Everything that they knew was changed forever and now they had a sense of caution in the back of their mind. We remember those who fought with every ounce of strength left so we do not forget that the world is a scary place and bad things can sadly happen but we just have to grow from it. You never realize what you have in this world until it is suddenly being taken from you by selfish people and Langewiesche states that by saying, “ People who came to the site in those early days often had the same first sensation, of leaving the city and walking into a dream. Many also felt when they saw the extent of the destruction that they had stumbled into a war zone.” The author uses this quote to explain how people were affected and how they felt during the disaster. He then has a way of showing us the multiple purposes within his piece.

Another purpose the author helps shed light to is all of the many heroes that gave their life no matter if they were in uniform or not. Throughout the story he underlines how multiple bystanders ran into the buildings to help as many people who were trapped under the rubble. “ But then, rather quickly, a crude management structure was agreed upon, and most of the volunteers were eased out of the ruins’ periphery, to be replaced at the core by a professional labor force that might loosely respond to direction-firemen and cops overtime, structural and civil engineers, and up to 3, 000 unionized construction workers.” This quote proves how multiple people who were not even trained, lended a hand when it came to rebuilding, saving, and comforting. The city was a family and although the worst possible thing happened within a matter of seconds, they all bonded over one thing. With doing this, the author attracts multiple audiences.

In conclusion, William Langewiesche establishes that so many people were affected by the Twin Towers falling by attracting his audience, making them feel connected with his pathos, and supporting his evidence. The article makes you realize how we should be cautious but stand by each other through all that goes on. A tragedy can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone. By seeing this piece you are unlocking the topics we do not talk about. You see how the city came together as a whole and helped build each other back up when it seemed like there was no hope for normality. When the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, the city of New York was never the same. But with tragedy comes strength and the people showed so much more than that. Langewiesche awakens us from the false world and opens our eyes that bad things happen, but it is up to you how you handle it.