Falling Man illustrates the significant way the September 11 attacks changed the lives of the characters. Characters such as Keith and Lianne are only portrayed in the aftermath of the attacks, but the novel hints at their lives before the attacks. After becoming estranged from his wife, Keith played his weekly poker game and dedicated everything to his career. Lianne raised Justin primarily by herself and endured her mother’s criticisms of Keith without having the ability to respond. After the attacks, however, this dissatisfaction and unhappiness are distant memories. The novel’s structure reflects how the attacks sever the characters from the discontent of their past and thrust them relentlessly into a new and different world. After September 11, the characters cannot relate to their former selves, and, like the reader, they only view their past miseries through the lens of their current unhappiness. The world so much after the attacks that the past seems a distant and unreachable place, somewhere the characters can only recollect fleetingly even though they are only removed from the memories by days, weeks, or months.

The world itself is changed by the attacks. The physical absence of the Twin Towers at

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