preview

Then Came The Fire Essay

Better Essays

This novel captured the personal accounts of individuals that were affected by the attack on the Pentagon. This included, but not limited to when each person arrived at the Pentagon that morning, until Flight 77 crashing into the building. These individuals participated in the novel, though interviews and documentaries. The general editor, Stephen J. Lofgren collaborated information from sixty different individuals that were affected by the Middle Eastern terrorist attack. The individuals interviewed were government workers, policemen, firefighters, medical personnel, and observers. The anthology of material needed for this book started two days after the incident occurred. The main focus of the material used was to give readers an up close …show more content…

The title of the book, Then Came the Fire, is a quote used to describe the fire was ignited from a series of explosions that were the result of thousands of gallons of fuel that was released from American Airlines …show more content…

After reading the first few pages, I ran across the line in the novel that read “The interviews have been lightly edited, but the intent has been to retain the voices of the individuals as much as possible”. Therefore, missing or lack of information makes me question the credibility of the material that I am reading. In addition, it makes me wonder if the material has been embellished or altered for selling purposes. The preface of the novel, also make readers aware that significant portions of the text have been omitted. Four asterisks are used to alert readers of the change. One example of this being demonstrated is on page 21, during an interview with Chief Schwartz. He started discussing how long it took him to reach the site of impact (E-ring of the Pentagon) and what happened once he arrived on location, the discussion just stopped in the middle of his explanation, and then poorly transitioned to him delegating command orders to different individuals. Moreover, due to the abrupt change in content, it makes the personal account of this person (Chief Schwartz) sound choppy and incomplete. Another example of poor transitioning of missing content is on page 120. Col Marcus A. Kuiper was discussing the travel time of departure from the Pentagon after the attack, and his route for leaving. The following paragraph after the asterisk immediately shifted to him talking about his wife. I don’t have a

Get Access