Butler did not
write this essay to persuade an audience or to entertain a reader; she wrote it
to relieve her guilt. “What Broke My Father’s Heart” by Katy Butler, begins by
making the audience think it is a memory of how her father died. The essay
develops into medical facts surrounding her father’s conditions. After years of
debilitating medical issues, Butler’s mother puts Butler’s father’s life into her
hands with instructions to let him go. Even as much as they both loved him they
knew it was his time, the pacemaker didn’t
Butler’s
sophisticated detailed writing makes the essay neither sad nor depressing. It
becomes an upbeat monotone of research and facts, “my father’s electronically
managed heart… became part of the $24 billion world wide cardiac device
industry” (Butler 17). The composition is filled with statistics about
pacemakers and their development in health science and information about
strokes, hernias, and dementia, medical issues her father had. Her style made
the story feel less personal and more of a defense because, “I felt as if I
were signing over as his executioner and that I had no choice” (Butler 21). Although
Butler knew her father’s condition was a huge strain on her mother and he was a
different person now, she still was unsettled with what she participated in
doing to him. She wrote this essay not just to tell a story about her father
but also to defend what she did to him. All of the listed facts point to the
conclusion that her association with her father’s death does not make her a bad
person. Butler has guilt about her father’s death and wrote this piece to prove
her innocence, even though no one was questioning it.
Butler has had
many other works published including a book of her own. In addition, she has
been printed in Best American Science
Writing, which is she recounts her father’s conditions in this essay with
such astounding detail.
“Five Cents Please” - Lucy Van Pelt
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