"The Ashen Guy"

"The Ashen Guy"

“The Ashen Guy” – Thomas Beller

He was on the 81st Floor of Two World Trade Center

At Thomas Street, about six blocks North of the World Trade Center, the nature of the crowd on the street changed. There was more urgency and less mirth, more police shouting, and amidst the crowd was a guy who had been on the 81st floor on Two World Trade Center when the plane hit. It was just after ten AM. Two World Trade Center had just collapsed, and One World Trade Center stood smoldering behind him.

At first glance he looked like a snowman except instead of snow he was covered in gray, asbestos colored ash. He was moving along with the crowd, streaming North up Broadway. His head and neck and shoulders and about halfway down his chest was covered in gray ash. You could make out a pair of bloodshot eyes, and he was running his hand over his head. A small plume of dust drifted off the top of his head as he walked, echoing the larger plume of smoke drifting off of One World Trade Center Behind him.

“There were about 230 people on the 81st floor and I was one of the last ones out. We took the stairs. There was smoke, but it wasn’t fire smoke, it was dry wall smoke and dust. The fire was above us.”

He was shaking. His eyes were red from dust and maybe tears. He didn’t seem like the sort of man who cried. He had fair skin and sandy hair cut in a crew cut. His pants were chinos and he had on Docksiders and his shirt was a checked button down.

He was walking along with the crowd but his body language was a little different. Everyone, even those who weren’t looking back, had about them a certain nervous desire to look behind them, to see, to communicate to their neighbor, but this guy had no interest in anything in getting away from he had just been. It radiated from every muscle in his body. To get away.

“I was almost out. I got down to the lobby, right near the Border’s book store. And then there was this explosion. I don’t know, I just got thrown to the ground and all this stuff fell on top of me.”

By now he had dusted his head off and you could see his skin. It was pale and ashen, one of his eyes was very red. At first I thought maybe it was the dust and perhaps tears that had made his eyes bloodshot but one eyes was badly inflamed.

He was joined by another man, blue oxford shirt and tie, mid forties, lawyerly, who worked in the building across the street.

“I watched the whole thing. I saw the second plane hit, the explosion. No one told us to evacuate, and then the building just collapsed and I thought I better get out of here because my building could go too.”

On Franklin street the Police were screaming: “There’s a package! There’s a package! Keep moving!”

They were hearding everyone to the left, towards West Broadway. “Trust me! Let’s Go! People Let’s Go there’s an unidentified package across the street!”

The view on West Broadway and Franklin was very good. One Tower, grey sky billowing, the sky darkening.

“I don’t know what happened. I just hit the ground, don’t know if something hit me or…”

“It was the force of the building collapsing,” said the Lawyer.

“I got up and just started walking,” said the Ashen guy.

There was a huge rumbling sound accompanied by the sound of people shrieking. Everyone who wasn’t already looking turned to see the remaining building start to crumble in on itself, a huge ball of smoke rising out from beneath it, a Mushroom cloud in reverse. The whole street paused, froze, screamed, some people broke into tears, except for the Ashen Guy, who just kept walking.

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(The story was posted on 2001-09-11)

< http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=616 >

< http://www.slate.com/id/1008262/ >

Learning Activity

Discussion Questions for Thomas Beller’s “The Ashen Guy: Lower Broadway, September 11, 2001”

1. Who is telling this story? How does he identify himself in his narrative? How is he getting around?

2. Why does the narrator single out the ashen guy from the rest of the crowd? Where was the ashen guy when the first plane hit? When did he get covered in ash?

3. The ashen guy is walking along with the crowd, “but his body language,” says the narrator, “was a little different” from everyone else’s (6). How does the narrator describe the ashen guy’s body? (indirect characterization/STEAL)

4. The identity of the ashen guy is never specified. Who might he be? What might he stand for? (symbolism)

5. How would you describe the mood in this story? How does the mood relate to the events of September 11, 2001?

6. Dialogue is one of the most dramatic elements of a narrative, introducing multiple points of view, thus enabling the narrator to show us what other characters are thinking instead of just telling us about their thoughts. How many different speakers does Beller identify? What does each of them contribute to this narrative?

7. Why do you think Beller ends this tale of near mass hysteria with the fall of the second tower? What is the significance of his ending with the ashen guy “Who just kept walking” (21)? (structure)

8. Beller’s narrator seldom refers to himself directly. Why might Beller want his narrator to recede into the background? What’s the focus of his story?

9. What are the implications of Beller’s use of the word “ashen” in the story of a national nightmare? *Think connotation.