Before Reading

The Man in the Water

Essay by Roger Rosenblatt

Can ordinary people

be HEROES?
When disaster strikes, people react in different ways. Some struggle
RI 2 Determine a central idea to save themselves, others crumble in fear, and a few rare individuals
of a text and analyze its risk their own lives to save the lives of strangers. In “The Man in the
development over the course
of the text, including how it is Water,” you will read about an ordinary man whose selfless acts
shaped by specific details. made him a hero.
RI 4 Analyze the cumulative
impact of specific word choices
on meaning and tone.
QUICKWRITE With a group, use a description wheel like

s
the one shown to list qualities that define a hero. Then

ou
ge
ura
write a short paragraph about a particular person who

co
possesses these traits. Make sure to indicate whether
Hero caring
the hero is a public figure or an ordinary person.

374

text analysis: reflective essay
A reflective essay is an essay in which the writer makes a
connection between a personal observation and a universal
idea—such as love, courage, or freedom. Roger Rosenblatt’s
essay contains narration as well as reflection. As he tells the
story of a disaster, he makes choices, as a fiction writer would,
about the order in which to present events and the perspective
from which to present them. He also makes stylistic choices
about diction (the words he uses) and syntax (the arrangement
of words) to create effects, such as the voice and tone of the
selection, rhythm of language, and emphasis of ideas. Notice
how the choices Rosenblatt makes involve you in the story.
reading skill: identify main idea and
supporting details
A reflective essay, like most essays, has a thesis, or main idea.
If you are unsure of the main idea, you can usually figure it
out from the supporting details—that is, the facts and other
evidence included in the essay to reinforce the central idea.
In “The Man in the Water,” Rosenblatt explores why a 1982
airplane crash is memorable. He develops his main idea over the
course of several paragraphs. Jot down each part of his main
idea as you find it. Then, beneath each statement, write a few
details that support it.
Statement Statement
Supporting Details Supporting Details
vocabulary in context
The following words are key to understanding Rosenblatt’s
essay about a real-life hero. Restate each phrase, using a
different word or words for the boldfaced term. Write your
answers in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
1. to straighten a chaotic 3. the flailing goose drying
bedroom its wings
2. freedom emblemized by 4. an implacable child who
the American flag cannot be quieted
Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
Meet the Author
Roger Rosenblatt
born 1940
Star Journalist
Roger Rosenblatt is a native of New York City
and holds a Ph.D. in literature and writing
from Harvard University. In 1975, after
teaching at his alma mater, he became a
professional journalist. During his lengthy
writing career, he has regularly contributed
to news publications, such as the Washington
Post and Time, and has won several
prestigious awards. Today, he is viewed as one
of the finest American essayists, approaching
his work with, as one critic noted, “uncommon
clarity, conciseness, eloquence and humor.”
Man of the World
Known for his sensitivity and literary flair,
Rosenblatt has won praise for several
nonfiction books on controversial topics,
including Witness: The World Since
Hiroshima, which examines the impact of
the atomic bomb on different aspects of
modern life. His best-known book is perhaps
Children of War, an investigation into the
lives of children in various war-torn nations.
background to the essay
The Crash of Flight 90
One of the most publicized air disasters
occurred on January 13, 1982, when Air
Florida Flight 90 departed from Washington
National Airport. Failing to gain enough
altitude on takeoff, the passenger jet crashed
into the nearby 14th Street Bridge and slid
into the icy Potomac River. Seventy-eight
people died in the disaster—some of them
in the plane,, some in their cars on the bridge,
g ,
and some in n the frigid waters of the Potomac.
Ice on the jet’s
et’s wings was the
probable cause
use of the
accident.
Author
Online
Go to thinkcentral.com.
kcentral.com..
KEYWORD: HML10-375
375

chaotic (kA-JtPGk) adj.
extremely confused
or disordered
emblemized
(DmPblE-mFzdQ) adj. 10
represented; symbolized
emblemize v.
flailing (flAPlGng) adj.
waving vigorously flail v.
20
a CENTRAL IDEA
Reread lines 15–21.
What point is Rosenblatt
making about nature and
human nature?
30
376 unit 3: narrative devices
The Man
in the Water
Roger Rosenblatt
As disasters go, this one was terrible, but not unique, certainly not among
the worst on the roster of U.S. air crashes. There was the unusual element
of the bridge, of course, and the fact that the plane clipped it at a moment
of high traffic, one routine thus intersecting another and disrupting both.
Then, too, there was the location of the event. Washington, the city of form
and regulations, turned chaotic, deregulated, by a blast of real winter and
a single slap of metal on metal. The jets from Washington National Airport
that normally swoop around the presidential monuments like famished gulls
are, for the moment, emblemized by the one that fell; so there is that detail.
And there was the aesthetic clash as well—blue-and-green Air Florida, the
name a flying garden, sunk down among gray chunks in a black river. All
that was worth noticing, to be sure. Still, there was nothing very special in
any of it, except death, which, while always special, does not necessarily
bring millions to tears or to attention. Why, then, the shock here?
Perhaps because the nation saw in this disaster something more than
a mechanical failure. Perhaps because people saw in it no failure at all,
but rather something successful about their makeup. Here, after all, were
two forms of nature in collision: the elements and human character. Last
Wednesday, the elements, indifferent as ever, brought down Flight 90. And
on that same afternoon, human nature—groping and flailing in mysteries
of its own—rose to the occasion. a
Of the four acknowledged heroes of the event, three are able to account
for their behavior. Donald Usher and Eugene Windsor, a park police
helicopter team, risked their lives every time they dipped the skids into
the water to pick up survivors. On television, side by side in bright blue
jumpsuits, they described their courage as all in the line of duty. Lenny
Skutnik, a twenty-eight-year-old employee of the Congressional Budget
Office, said: “It’s something I never thought I would do”—referring to his
jumping into the water to drag an injured woman to shore. Skutnik added
that “somebody had to go in the water,” delivering every hero’s line that
 A park police
helicopter
pulls two
survivors
from the
Potomac
River
following
the crash of
Air Florida
Flight 90.

is no less admirable for its repetitions. In fact, nobody had to go into the
water. That somebody actually did so is part of the reason this particular
tragedy sticks in the mind. b b GRAMMAR AND STYLE
But the person most responsible for the emotional impact of the disaster Reread lines 23–25. Notice
how Rosenblatt includes
is the one known at first simply as “the man in the water.” (Balding,
the appositive phrase,
probably in his fifties, an extravagant mustache.) He was seen clinging or noun phrase, “a park
with five other survivors to the tail section of the airplane. This man was police helicopter team”
described by Usher and Windsor as appearing alert and in control. Every to describe concisely who
time they lowered a lifeline and flotation ring to him, he passed it on to the two men are.
40 another of the passengers. “In a mass casualty, you’ll find people like him,”
said Windsor. “But I’ve never seen one with that commitment.” When the
helicopter came back for him, the man had gone under. His selflessness was
one reason the story held national attention; his anonymity another. The c REFLECTIVE ESSAY
In Rosenblatt’s view,
fact that he went unidentified invested him with a universal character. For why did “the man in the
a while he was Everyman, and thus proof (as if one needed it) that no man water” give the story
is ordinary. c greater significance?
Still, he could never have imagined such a capacity in himself. Only
d REFLECTIVE ESSAY
minutes before his character was tested, he was sitting in the ordinary plane Notice how Rosenblatt
among the ordinary passengers, dutifully listening to the stewardess telling shifts back in time and
50 him to fasten his seat belt and saying something about the “no smoking assumes the perspective
sign.” So our man relaxed with the others, some of whom would owe their of the man, even though
lives to him. Perhaps he started to read, or to doze, or to regret some harsh he cannot really know
what the man was
remark made in the office that morning. Then suddenly he knew that the thinking. What does this
trip would not be ordinary. Like every other person on that flight, he was perspective add to your
desperate to live, which makes his final act so stunning. d impression of the man?

the man in the water 377

 Language Coach
Frequently Misused Words
Reread lines 57–58. Affect
is a verb meaning “to
influence”: The weather
affected her commute.
Effect is a noun meaning
“a result”: Jimmy’s
scolding had no effect on
his noisy sister. How is
effect used in lines 57–58?
RI 4
e SYNTAX AND
DICTION
Diction refers to the
writer’s word choice,
and syntax refers to the
arrangement of those
words. Writers use
diction and syntax—
important components
of voice—to create
effects. For example,
Rosenblatt uses
sentence fragments
in line 64 to create
drama and emphasis.
These fragments slow
the reader down and
call attention to the
ideas they express.
The fragments are also
parallel, with a repeated
grammatical structure
that adds to the rhythm
of the language and
shows that the two
subjects—man in nature
and man in the water—
are equal ideas. Where
else in this paragraph do
you see repeated diction
or syntax? What effect
does it create?
For at some moment in the water he must have realized that he would not
live if he continued to hand over the rope and ring to others. He had to know
it, no matter how gradual the effect of the cold. In his judgment he had no
choice. When the helicopter took off with what was to be the last survivor, he
60 watched everything in the world move away from him, and he deliberately let
it happen.
Yet there was something else about the man that kept our thoughts
on him, and which keeps our thoughts on him still. He was there, in the
essential, classic circumstance. Man in nature. The man in the water. e
For its part, nature cared nothing about the five passengers. Our man,
on the other hand, cared totally. So the timeless battle commenced in the
Potomac. For as long as that man could last, they went at each other, nature
and man: the one making no distinctions of good and evil, acting on no
principles, offering no lifelines; the other acting wholly on distinctions,
70 principles, and, one supposes, on faith.
Since it was he who lost the fight, we ought to come again to the
conclusion that people are powerless in the world. In reality, we believe the
reverse, and it takes the act of the man in the water to remind us of our true
feelings in this matter. It is not to say that everyone would have acted as he
did, or as Usher, Windsor, and Skutnik. Yet whatever moved these men to
challenge death on behalf of their fellows is not peculiar to them. Everyone
feels the possibility in himself. That is the abiding wonder of the story. That
is why we would not let go of it. If the man in the water gave a lifeline to
the people gasping for survival, he was likewise giving a lifeline to those
80 who observed him.
The odd thing is that we do not even really believe that the man in the
water lost his fight. “Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature,”
said Emerson. Exactly. 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.
The man in the water pitted himself against an implacable, impersonal
enemy; he fought it with charity; and he held it to a standoff. He was the
best we can do.
January 25, 1982

implacable (Gm-plBkPE-bEl)
adj. impossible to calm or
satisfy; relentless

378 unit 3: narrative devices

376-378_NA_L10PE-u03s5-ManWa.indd 378 3/11/11 1:13:25 PM

After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall What disaster is described in this essay? RI 1 Cite strong and thorough
textual evidence to support
2. Recall How did the anonymous man respond to the disaster? inferences drawn from the text.
RI 2 Determine a central idea of
3. Summarize What eventually happened to the man in the water? a text and analyze its development
over the course of the text,
including how it is shaped by
Text Analysis specific details. RI 4 Analyze the
cumulative impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone.
4. Clarify Rosenblatt defines the struggle between the man and the water in
broad terms. What does the struggle represent?
5. Make Inferences Why do you think Rosenblatt chose to focus on the
anonymous man in the water rather than on one of the other three
acknowledged heroes of the disaster?
6. Examine Reflective Essay Reflective essays relate a writer’s personal
observations to universal ideas. Such essays are loosely structured and may
use some of the same narrative techniques that fictional stories do. What
would this essay lose without paragraphs 5 and 6 (lines 47–61)? What would it
lose without paragraph 7 (lines 62–70) or the final paragraph?
7. Draw Conclusions About the Central Idea Review the chart you completed
as you read. What is the central idea of the essay? Cite evidence to support
your answer.
8. Analyze Tone A writer’s tone is the attitude that he or she takes toward a
subject. It can be described in many different ways, including serious, bitter,
playful, or sympathetic. In your own words, describe Rosenblatt’s tone toward
the man in the water. Cite specific words and phrases to explain your thinking.
9. Evaluate Opinion Rosenblatt concludes that “we do not even really believe
that the man in the water lost his fight [with nature].” Do you agree or
disagree with this opinion? Cite evidence to support your answer.
10. Make Generalizations Do you think that most people are capable of acting
as heroically as the man in the water? Give examples from the essay and real
life to support your opinion.

Text Criticism
11. Critical Interpretations “For me,” Rosenblatt once stated, “the essay is a
continuous search for an answer to a question.” In your opinion, what
question did Rosenblatt set out to answer in “The Man in the Water”?
Cite evidence to support your interpretation.

Can ordinary people be HEROES?

What heroic qualities do you have?

the man in the water 379

Vocabulary in Context word list
vocabulary practice chaotic
Decide whether the words in each pair are synonyms or antonyms. emblemized
flailing
1. chaotic/ordered
implacable
2. emblemized/symbolized
3. flailing/waving
4. implacable/consolable

academic vocabulary in speaking

• consequent • crucial • initial • shift • survive

Part of the significance of the man in the water is that he gave his life to save
others. Discuss with a partner how the perspective of this essay would shift if
the man had survived the ordeal. Refer to evidence from the text and use at
least one Academic Vocabulary word in your discussion.

vocabulary strategy: the latin root plac

The word implacable stems from the Latin root plac, which means “to please or L 4c Consult reference materials
to determine or clarify a word’s
soothe.” To understand the meaning of words with plac, use context clues as meaning or etymology.
well as your knowledge of the root.

placate placebo

plac

implacable placid

PRACTICE Choose the word from the word web that best completes each
sentence. Use context clues to help you, or, if necessary, consult a dictionary.

1. The doctor prescribed a medicine-free pill to satisfy the patient.

Interactive
2. She gave the crying baby a pacifier to her. Vocabulary
3. His boss was so difficult to please. Go to thinkcentral.com.
KEYWORD: HML10-380
4. They lived a , unhurried existence in the mountains.

380 unit 3: narrative devices

Language
grammar and style: Write Concisely L 1b Use various types of phrases
to convey specific meanings and
Review the Grammar and Style note on page 377. One way Rosenblatt is able to add variety and interest to writing.
keep his writing concise is by using appositive phrases. An appositive is a noun or
pronoun that identifies or renames another noun or pronoun. An appositive phrase,
or noun phrase, is made up of an appositive plus its modifiers. By incorporating
appositive phrases into your writing, you can convey information about a person or
thing in one sentence. Here are two examples from the essay:
Washington, the city of form and regulations, turned chaotic . . . (lines 5–6)
Lenny Skutnik, a twenty-eight-year-old employee of the Congressional Budget
Office, said . . . (lines 26–28)
Notice how the revisions in blue in the student model use appositive phrases
to make the writing of this first draft more concise. Use a similar technique to
revise your own writing.

student model
, an award winning author and essayist,
In “The Man in the Water,” Roger Rosenblatt writes about the disaster
, a passenger jet
that befell Air Florida Flight 90. Roger Rosenblatt is an award winning

author and essayist. The plane was a passenger jet. Unlike an objective

news reporter, Rosenblatt assumes the perspective of the man in the

,
water. That man was an ordinary American hero.

reading-writing connection


YOUR Increase your understanding of “The Man in the Water” by responding
to this prompt. Then use the revising tip to improve your writing.
TURN

writing prompt revising tip

Short Constructed Response: Analysis Review your response.
What do you learn in “The Man in the Water” that Have you used
you would probably not learn in a news report appositive phrases
of the same tragedy? Use what you know about to make your writing Interactive
reflective essays and narrative techniques to write more concise? If not, Revision
a one- or two-paragraph response. revise. Go to thinkcentral.com.
KEYWORD: HML10-381

the man in the water 381