Horrifying Beauty

The opening paragraph of Beth Loffreda’s, “Losing Matt Shepard” gives facts about the murder of Matt Shepard in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming. Before stating anything about the event, she points out that Laramie “is beautiful”. This ironic statement gives the reader a more understanding view of the general inhabitants of Laramie, which would not have been thought of if Beth started directly with the murder. When Loffreda does talk about the murder, she gives all the facts in one long emotionless sentence containing 8 semicolons. This is directly relative to the swiftness the facts were acquired by and how irrelevant they were to the underlining motive behind the murder.