What Really Happened by Madge McKeithen

What Really Happened, by Madge McKeithen describes the steps that a woman is taking in North Carolina, in order to visit a convicted murderer. As the story moves along, memories and thoughts that are related to the tragedy that the author experienced keep occurring. The victim is very special to the author and the author decides to visit the murderer to find out why he did what he did. The purpose of this work is for the reader to determine what is going on in the story by deciphering the symbolism in the author’s work. This essay is written like a puzzle portraying many feelings and emotions to the reader.           

The author does a great job portraying her mood and the reader can feel it. The writing is indirect and this story is also an epigraph because the author is doing all of this for the praise of the woman that died because she was very dear to her. The style of this story really appeals to emotion and the author does such a great job with style that the reader feels as if they are thinking like the author is.           

            This essay was written for people who have had a similar occurrence, or for people who love reading crime investigation.

            The author is somewhat credible because she is born and raised in North Carolina, and she began teaching in the Writing Program at the New School in New York in 2003. However, the fact that this is not a personal recount makes it less credible.            

            I do think that the author achieved her purpose. She made this essay a mystery so that the reader would have to determine what was going on. However, I feel that the author made this essay too puzzling and left the reader wondering if they really understood it.

 This picture from Government Gone Wild is a man in a prison, similar to the one the author wrote about.