Terrorism centres on both the tactic and strategy to commit acts of
violence. It is viewed as a method of combat. It is a means to achieve
certain targets. Terrorist acts aim to induce a state of fear in the
victims which are not necessarily the actual targets of the terrorists.
The terrorist events on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the
United States of America on September 11, 2001 have drawn the attention
of many American writers. Writing about these terrorist events evolved
into a field known as terrorism and America writing. This study
discusses Don Dellilo'sFalling Man (2007) and John Updike's Terrorist
(2006) as Contemporary American novels that show awareness of terrorism.
The study is a qualitative research that limits itself to two texts,
Falling Man and Terrorist. This study adopts postmodernist framework as
the theoretical basis for the assessment of characters and societal
issues in the selected texts and how they grapple with such issues as
violence, infidelity, and characters reaction to the economic state of
America, poor housing and poor educational system as reasons to commit
acts of violence. The study proceeds on the assumption that offering an
aesthetic representation on these issues demonstrates the writers craft
in creating a distinct mode of reading the event. As such using
postmodernisttools in reading post 9/11 novels creates a critical view
on how these events that are not only violent but appear irrational and
complicated become a discourse worthy of literary study. Based on the
above premise, this study finds out that most issues discussed in both
texts in many ways indict America and its way of handling
socio-cultural, economic and political issues. The study also finds that
in order to be heard and to draw attention to America's way of life,
terrorists resolve to commit terrorist activities.