The Violence of Choice

Katherine L. McAvoy

To Whom It May Concern:

This outstanding story centers around current, topical human conflict, and keeps in line with areas that Katherine challenges herself to address in her short stories. I am impressed by her ability to tell the story through the “first person eyes” of someone very different from herself. This ability to examine the world from outside her own perspective is a trademark of what she writes. Katherine’s use of language here is almost poetic as she is able to express complex ideas through small details.

Rick Weinheimer, English teacher, English department chair

Columbus North High School, Columbus, IN

To be answered by the student

"The Violence of Choice" is a reaction to and an exploration of the recent events that have saddened our nation. I wanted to confront these issues through the voice of a worldly narrator, one who has faced horror in his past but still wishes for a better life, one who ultimately is unable to escape his fate. I wanted him to be starkly different from the reader, yet still be so real that one cannot help but feel for the sorrow and inescapability of his life. I wanted this story to truly resonate, forcing the reader to consider a situation from another’s perspective.

I have achieved all of my goals concerning “The Violence of Choice.”