Ethos: Developing Voice

This analysis is in response to the article found here.
Oprah Magazine: "I will never know why"; written by Susan Klebold, mother of Dylan Klebold--one of the shooters responsible for Columbine


Klebold writes to O Magazine to speak out about her son's actions and his attacks on Columbine; the deadliest and most devasting shooting attack on a high school in American history. This is her first attempt at speaking to the public on the aftermath.

The author, speaking as a mother, writes the article in the first person--making it a personal narrative. Klebold recounts the day as clear as her memory allows, from the first moment of receiving an urgent phone call from her husband to the police raiding her house, all the way to her deep fears and her role as a mother being questioned by society. She manages to invite the audience in by allowing them to see her side of things from her perspective--a side no one even bothered to consider.

By creating her personal narrative, Klebold boldly and fondly remembers her son as the perfect son that was in her mind; from his childhood all the way to him being accepting into the University of Arizona. Considering a majority of O magazine readers are adult women and mothers, the audience is able to relate to the joy of seeing a child grow into an adult. Klebold's voice develops from a mother who deeply loves her son, to a mother that questions herself and is left in a black hole of unanswered questions. She makes us feel empathy for her, as she remembers that she stopped using her last name in public after the attacks (a recognition that she no longer considers herself a positive contributing member to society) and that during the raid, she was concerned for her son's safety--as all parents feel when imminent danger is close to their children.

Klebold moves from first to third person a lot in her narrative; but considering she is the woman that raised Dylan (a person seen as a monster in society), she has the authority to defend him. She has the authority to defend that he was a lonely person who never felt he fit in society, who often wanted to escape. And despite being asked, "how could she not see this coming?" she has no answers for that, she speaks as a parent that deeply loved her child and was blinded by her affections to be unable to see past his flaws. Any parent is guilty of that; they only want to see the best in them.

However, Klebold ends the article abruptly by announcing and promoting suicide research and prevention. Klebold seems to glaze over the fact that her son only committed suicide after the shootings--after the homicide. Klebold, though she makes herself out as a victim, seems to forget that her son is a killer--she is stuck on the idea that he is still her son and always will be.