Many people have heard of the Boston Marathon one way or another, it is the oldest marathon in the United States and the first one took place in 1897 following the first time the marathon was an event, which occurred in 1897. The marathon is a storied tradition, but in 2013 on April 15th the race itself, the people that participated in it and the observers were attacked by an act of terrorism. The people that caused this were two terrorists detonated bombs injuring many and taking the lives of three people, the above image captures the second explosion. This explosion was captured by David L. Ryan and not only did it injure many and kill a few, but it also instilled a sense of fear in people, when thinking of terrorism similar to the events that took place on 9/11. After the events took place the perpetrators were caught and eventually Boston and the rest of the America came back even more united and powerful the before the bombing. When viewing the picture two things pop out right away one being the massive amount of color that is present and the other being the motion of all things in the picture. As one views the picture the color and motion create a sense of chaos and madness, which shows the terrorists unfortunately completed their mission by creating terror and chaos in America on that day.

While there are many different colors in this picture some stand out more than others and it reinforces a sense of chaos and terror. First it can be seen that all the Countries who are represented in the race by runners have a flag hung up on the right side, which if viewed in any other photo would create a sense of unity because of all of the Countries stand together in one placing creating the feeling. However, in this picture due to the massive amounts of smoke created from the bombs eerily creates a haze over the flags. The haze over the flag creates a sense that they are struggling to stay united and are being overshadowed by whatever has created the haze. The chaos stems directly from this, at the moment the bombs seem to be the end of the world and create a “haze” over the entire world not just the nation of America. America and all other Countries attempt to stay united, but this event is cause strains and this is represented by the flags being smoke screened. Also the officers that are all dressed in yellow, and yellow represents calmness but is also attention getting, which is what the officers are supposed to be at all times. However, again the bombings cause even the officers who are attempting to always protect citizens into a frenzy as they can be seen in the middle of streets and it can be assumed they had little control of anyone on that day. Unfortunately acts such as these cause chaos and terror in people possibly even officers, but definitely the citizens and instead of officers being organized like they usually are even they are sucked into the chaos, representing how much madness was caused by the evil terrorists.

The motion of the officers and all other people present in the and smoke in the picture also help to form the terror, the bombers wanted to create. At first glance it seems like everyone is running from the explosion, which for many would be a natural reaction for most. But after further examination it can be seen that some of society actually seems to be running towards the explosion maybe to investigate what just happened or maybe to help people that are injured. Whatever the case may be the motion of the picture is in all different directions some running onto the street, some running off the street and others that are running either up or down the street. The motion of the people does a great job representing the madness of the whole situation and the chaos which was a result of the bombing. Also if one looks at the flags it seems as if they are being blown and look to be crumpling up a bit, which was caused by the force of the bombs. The motion of the flags shows that on this day the terrorists may have gotten what they wanted and scared some Nations, but fortunately those Nations came back even stronger after these events took place.

The events that took place on April 15th 2013 were violent and murderous and were acts of terrorism to create chaos in society. While on that day the terrorists may have succeed and that can be seen in the picture, and the picture shows that extremely well through all the different colors and motions of people and flags. In the picture there are many excellent factors that help to show that mass chaos caused by the bombings, but the color and motion displayed in the photo convey that idea best. However, in the coming days Boston, America and other Nations of the world banded together in an effort to overcome the chaos. This unity was successful and all that had unified were stronger than they were before the acts of terrorism. The newly found strength was represented by the saying “BostonStrong” and is also evident in the fact that the race took place the next year, this show the great resiliency of the citizens of the United States.
