Analyzing The Marathon

Analyzing this piece from Grantland I first noticed the date the piece was published, only one day following the bombing at the marathon. I thought this would be important in reading the rest of the article, knowing that the event was still very fresh in the memory of everyone around the country and especially anyone at the marathon when the bombs went off. Knowing that I thought it was courageous of Pierce, the author, to start the piece off with how melancholy the marathon had been in the past. To Bostontonians they loved the event but they almost took just as much pleasure making fun of it for “monumental inconvenience, its occasionally towering self-regard, and the annual attempts by Boston-area television stations to use it to win another shelf full of local Emmy’s”. It would have been easy for Pierce to, like most of the general media, just discuss the sheer devastation that was felt at the event especially since he was at the marathon when this all occurred. This context really works well by the time we get to the end of the article.

Using the personal stories from runners and the family members of the runners at the event gave the story a face, it made it easier to picture someone at the event at the time of the bombing. Also since all the people he interviewed where at different areas at the time of the bombing which really told the whole story, not just the people who were at ground zero but also runners who had yet to reach the finish. Starting with Kathy Hynes and Harry Smith who were the farthest away from the bombing out of all the people interviewed, you get a sense for the confusion of what had happened only a couple of miles away. Since police couldn’t speculate on the sheer magnitude of what had happened all they could tell the runners was the race is cancelled to do an incident. But in the world of social media and instant messaging it didn’t take long for word to reach around the entire Boston area, and even the entire world, of what had happened. This is where the article really started to take a serious turn, when it starts talking about the deaths and the countless people injured, some permanently.

Calling back in the article to probably the most infamous bombing in American history, 9/11, was an important comparison to have. While it may have been from someone he interviewed it helped describe the cautious that happened with so many people on the street not knowing what was going on and the panic that ensued.

The article in general to me tried to stay away from the overall story line of what happened on that day, but instead tried to find the human aspect. This is why he interviewed such a wide spread amount of people who had very different viewpoints of the bombing. All of these different experiences and different viewpoints of the same event is something that still to this day I haven’t seen done this well. We've seen the interviews and stories of the victims of the bombing, but not from the countless others who were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time. It also showed the courage of the volunteers who were at the scene, example being the tent that was originally setup for runners who were dehydrated or just too physically drained from the marathon was quickly turned into a medical ward for all the on lookers who were injured. Without having to be asked or told they gave up their seats for the people who truly needed it at that time, it might have been an easy decision for those involved but still seeing little acts like that after such a devastating event is what needs to be looked at almost as much as what happened.

Going back to what Pierce said at the beginning of the article about how the marathon had been treated as a joke to most people from Boston we come full circle at the end of the article. He believes that someday the event may again become lighter harded and something people can joke about. But now and for a while when people come to the Boston Marathon or watch the coverage on T.V. they will go back to that day on April 15^th, 2013. When three people lost their lives, other were mutilated causing them to lose limbs, there pain and the pain of anyone who was there will live on forever and even worse every year the marathon comes back to Boston. But part of the healing process is time, and time and patience is what is needed for Boston to rally and strengthen after this event. With the hindsight we have now we know that’s exactly what the people of Boston did, and while they wish the bombing never happened they are better and stronger for it. They will always stay Boston Strong.