Ground Zero Suzanne Berne Summary

The main theme for “Ground Zero” by Suzanne Berne, is absence. After New York’s World Trade Center towers became destroyed in 2011, Berne felt like she needed to visit what people refer to as “ground zero.” Once she arrived, she noticed she was not the only person drawn to the site. Furthermore, since she was one of those who saw the disaster from televisions, and newspapers, she remained determined to find a way to better understand the emptiness she was looking at. She decided to ask people for directions to the kiosk where she could get “her ticket to the disaster.” Once she found it, they told her she had to wait four more hours. Finally, she found a deli on Vesey Street that had a perfect view of the World Trade Center. After some time past, she decided to venture back outside where she experienced how much
After she adjusted her eyes at ground zero, she realized the “nothing” she thought she was seeing was not nothing at all. Ground zero became a great bowl of light, an emptiness that seemed weirdly spacious and grand. It was at that moment when she realizes what now looks like a construction site, use to stand two gigantic towers. She could see all the details that once stood there. It took her awhile to take in how it looks now, but it took her even longer to think of something to say about it. Furthermore, she recalls an elderly man telling his son how he watched those towers being built and how he saw that place before there was something to see. The old man was describing an absence before there was an absence. Everyone around her was trying to find the words to express their emotions; however no one could. Once people started writing their names or “God Bless America” on the walls, Berne realized the absence was filled with all the memories of the people who were