What Really Happened by Madge McKeithen

The essay What Really Happened by Madge McKeithen was a disconnected essay detailing the author’s experience of visiting a killer and the derived emotions. McKeithen has been credited with a novel: Blue Peninsula: Essential words for a Life of Loss and Change. Loss, a theme of her novel, also is a theme within her essay. The essay begins with an astoundingly detailed process of visiting a prisoner, and her authentic experience. The reader then begins to understand, through scattered pieces of personal information and emotion, that the convict being visited murdered McKeithen’s friend. Though the convict had been incarcerated for 12 years, McKeithen conveys her unwavering care for the victim. She displays throughout a desire to understand the logic behind her friend’s murder. In order to convey the purpose of conveying the emotions in loss, McKeithen used rhetorical devices such as pathos and tense. Tense played a large roll in getting the purpose across throughout the essay. Multiple elements contributed to the mood; each of which became apparent when McKeithen talks to other friends of the victim. During this conversation the text reads, “Say you have been thinking about her because you are all turning 50.” (McKeithen, 138) In this sentence, mood is conveyed through her use of second person. By not using the word “I”, a certain disconnect is felt as it becomes apparent that McKeithen wants to disconnect from her life and not to be in this predicament. However, the use of “you” makes the reader put themselves in the shoes of the author. Pathos was also conveyed as McKeithen recalled things about the victim and his emotions. As she visits the victim’s murderer in prison, she is asked why she wants to go. She then describes a situation where you “Listen to yourself say because I loved her.” (McKeithen, 139) The word love is an extremely powerful word in this sentence as it creates extreme empathy from anyone who has lost someone or something they love. It therefore creates a deep emotional connection between the audience and the author and thus achieves McKeithen’s purpose.

Love Forever, Even in Death
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