Roger Rosenblatt The Man In The Water Summary

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In 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 dove into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington D.C. and then dropped into the brisk waters of the Potomac river. The aftermath of this flight was unusual because of the actions of one individual involved in the disaster. A man in his fifties made the courageous decision to risk his own life to save his fellow passengers from the icy water. The man later lost his life. Roger Rosenblatt, an award-winning journalist, wrote an article about this man for Time magazine entitled "The Man in the Water". In the article, Rosenblatt tells the story of this strong man and praises his audacious accomplishments. His descriptions of the man present a main message that perfectly bring together his story. The message Rosenblatt …show more content…

The main element of the man in the water's behavior is selflessness because in a situation where his life was on the line, he thought of others before himself. Rosenblatt puts into words how indescribably meaningful this event was. He states that in this situation, this man's human nature rose to the occasion. In the article, Rosenblatt asked other officials involved and they said they were very thankful for what this man did for others. "Its something I thought I would never do" said one man. The author is astounded by the fact that this hero lost his own life after saving so many others. He describes this as being "admirable". Doing something along the lines of what this man did would take great effort, strength, stamina, selflessness, charity, and courage. The list goes on and on. The willingness to save another's life instead of his own propel's this man into the sky. He must have had a heart of …show more content…

Rosenblatt takes an engaging take on it. His words regarding this are: "So the man in the water had his own natural powers. He could not make ice storms or freeze the water until it froze the blood. But he could hand life over to a stranger, and that is a power of nature, too." He describes nature as being the man in the water's absolute enemy. When nature cared nothing for those fighting for their lives, this man did. The icy cold water made the situation immensely harder for this hero of a man to grasp the lives of the strangers around him. But he looked it straight in the face and defied it, even if it may have stolen his life from him. However, if it weren't for the harsh nature, this act of pure selflessness would not have been as significant. Rosenblatt presented nature as the man's "implacable" and "impersonal" enemy. Selflessness is very strongly supplied through the loss of the man in the water's life. He layed his life down so others could have theirs for a little longer. Rosenblatt exhibits this in his article. The fact that no one knew this man's name makes his heroic act "universal", according to Rosenblatt. Selflessness gave this man the full power to save the people who were fighting to survive. Those who think that it is impossible for one person to have power in an event are wrong. In this setting, if it weren't for the selflessness that propelled this man to

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