24 pages • 48 minutes read
Anna QuindlenA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section references terrorism and racial and religious prejudice, including Islamophobia.
The events of September 11, 2001, and its aftermath were a watershed moment in American and world history. In this unprecedented attack on American soil, 19 al-Qaeda militants hijacked four commercial airplanes in a coordinated attack against the United States. Two planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing their collapse. A third plane struck the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US military in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane, intended to target a federal building in Washington, DC, crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers revolted against the hijackers. Almost 3,000 individuals lost their lives in the attacks, leading to major domestic and foreign policy shifts, including initiatives to combat terrorism that would impact the United States and the world for decades to come.
The 9/11 attacks immediately triggered rising Islamophobia among the American populace. Studies conducted in the period following the attacks showed “low levels of awareness about basic elements of Islam but growing anxiety about Islam’s (especially Islamic fundamentalism’s) compatibility with Western values of tolerance, acceptance, and civility” (Panagopoulos, Costas. “Trends: Arab and Muslim Americans and Islam in the Aftermath of 9/11,” The Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 4, Winter 2006, pp. 608-24). Despite then-President George W. Bush condemning discrimination, there was nevertheless a climate of increased suspicion about Muslim and Arab Americans (or those perceived to be so), and there were even racist acts of violence committed against them.
Quindlen wrote this essay in the immediate aftermath of these events and in direct response to them. Against the backdrop of this recent collective national trauma, she aims to comfort and guide the reader. She also challenges the reader to reflect on America’s strengths, and most of all to not let the enemy divide and conquer American society. Given this tense historical context, her essay promotes unity over divisiveness, redirecting the surge of Patriotism and National Identity that the attacks inspired away from xenophobia and toward Multiculturalism in the United States.
By Anna Quindlen