After the bomb was dropped it ended the War but also destroyed an entire society. Most don’t understand what took place here and John Hersey provides an insight.Hersey, when describing the bomb’s unnatural power, uses calamitous imagery to show the post-apocalyptic scene the followed the bomb. Moments after the bomb was detonated the city had been destroyed and shock began to settle in on those who were affected. The city would never look the same. “Much of Hiroshima as he could see through the clouded air was giving off a thick, dreadful miasma. Clumps of smoke near and far up, had begun to push up through the general dust...Houses nearby were burning, and when huge drops of water the size of marbles were dropping, he half thought they were coming from the hoses of…show more content… Hersey uses the visual imagery of the mushroom cloud to show the total devastation that took place in Hiroshima. “Clumps of smoke near and far up” shows that the bomb was dropped very close to Tanimoto’s perspective. The city in this perspective has almost disappeared as the air was”clouded” and the city was crowded by a “general dust”. From Tanimoto’s perspective it seems as if the entire city has disappeared and the chemicals filled the air. After the atomic bomb was detonated and obliterated the city a smell was released. The clouded air filled with chemicals give off a “Thick dreadful miasma”. As a miasma is the most unpleasant of all smells adding the diction of “dreadful” illustrates the horribleness of this smell. With the burning chemicals filling the air this smell is the smell of death.“In the descriptions of the atomic blast, Hersey makes no mention of the fireball and mentions the mushroom cloud only once. The oblique reference emphasizes the effects of the cloud on the survivors rather than engaging in a detailed description”(Sharp). Sharp shows that Hersey wants to show the cloud means more than the destroyed city. These effects of the cloud will lead to be very toxic and
