Falling Man

The towers at the World Trade Center were struck by planes on September 11, 2001, in a terrorist attack by a group named Al-Qaeda. Falling Man portrays the towers and the attacks, using the towers as important symbols whose meaning is different for different characters. The diffusive nature of the symbolism associated with the towers illustrates the changing perspectives found across cultures. For an American man like Keith, the towers symbolize success. He not only works in the towers, but he also orientates his life around them. He moves out of the apartment he shares with Lianne and into an apartment closer to the towers, feeling a need to be associated with this symbol of professional and cultural success. The towers become a symbolic part of Keith’s identity, making their destruction more devastating to his psyche. After the towers collapse, Keith struggles to redefine his identity. He goes through a process in which his ideas of success and value are entirely altered. By the end of the novel, he spends an increasing amount of time away from New York City. He does not like to be reminded of the absence of the towers, a symbolic reminder of the dissociative effect of the attack on his identity.