Capote obviously could not interview the victims, and he conducted extensive interviews with the killers. How does Capote develop portraits of the victims in the story? To what extent is In Cold Blood really just the story of the killers?
Capote introduces the Clutters before their murder, giving a small introduction to who they are individually and as a family. Mr. Clutter is kind and respected, and even allows his employee to take the morning off to “carry [his baby] to the doctor,” (12). Nancy is described as, “always in a hurry, but [she] always has time. And that’s one definition of a lady” (25). Capote further develops the portraits of the Clutters by including the people of Holcomb’s personal accounts after the murder. However, unlike the Clutters, the murderers are living throughout the entire story, so they are the ones who Capote follows. The entire story is learning about their motives, their rough lives, their faults, and their ambitions. The book doesn’t really go into great detail about Kenyon’s ambitions and personality. Perry and Dick are the characters that the reader really gets to know.
Capote describes the victims in depth in the beginning of the first section, as they were before they are murdered. However, this is the only real exposure we have to the victims and their lives throughout the entire book. Capote obviously did his research, and recieved facts from the people closest to the victims, however the reader can never be sure how much of the victims portrayal is accurate. However, the story alternates between the goings on in the town, and the killers. They make up every other chapter of the book. Additionally, Capote includes many personal stories and true letters describing the killers and their personal lives, which attempts to give the reader a better understanding, and even a sort of sympathy, towards the killers. For example, Capote writes many times about how Perry, “when he was seven years old, [...] liv[ed] in a California orphanage run by nuns - shrouded disciplinarians who whipped him for wetting his bed” (92).
The first part of In Cold Blood focuses on the Clutter family before they were killed. We learn some important things for the plot of the book, such as the fact that “[l]ike royalty, [Mr. Clutter] was famous for never carrying cash” (p.46). This becomes important later on, when we discover that Dick originally wanted to rob the Clutters, but was unable to find more than fifty dollars in their home. We also learn about Nancy Clutter’s boyfriend and Mrs. Clutter’s mental illness. We learn that the Clutters were a kind, decent, and friendly family, and that no one had a real motive to kill them. However, parts of the first section and the rest of the book are focusing on Dick, Perry, and the law enforcement trying to bring them to justice. Capote uses testimony of other people and Nancy’s diary to deduce what the Clutters were doing on their last day on earth, but everything mentioned is really about the murderers,providing background to the crime. Capote uses the Clutters to tell the story of Dick and Perry, not to tell the Clutter’s story itself.
At the beginning of In Cold Blood, Capote recounts the events leading up to the murder. He tells us about the Clutters and about their lifestyle. He gets us “up close and personal” with the family, showing us each of the victims and what they were like. We get different accounts of the Clutters, whether it is from Capote or another character being interviewed. While being interviewed, Mrs. Ashida says in reference to Herb Clutter, “I’ll bet he wasn’t afraid. I mean, however it happened, I’ll bet right up to the last he didn’t believe it would. Because he couldn’t. Not to him” (117). On the other hand, Capote follows the story of the killers, Dick and Perry, the whole time. He goes into detail about where they traveled and their “adventures,” and tells us how they were feeling. This story is largely about the killers, as they are the two people on which Capote mostly focuses.
In the beginning of In Cold Blood, Capote gives us a brief glimpse in to the lives of the victims, the Clutters. The father, Herbert, is described as being a very prominent community leader. His wife on the other hand, is portrayed as being extremely withdrawn from the community. Capote shows us this when he says ," she was "nervous," she suffered "little spells"- such were the sheltering expressions used by those close to her" (7). This same contrast of character can be found in their children as well. One of the daughters, Nancy, is a very socially adept girl, while her sister, Kenyon, is very awkward. However, the victims are only discussed in the first section of the book. The story is mainly focused on the killers, Richard and Perry. The reason why Capote primarily focuses on the killers is because it was easier to gather information about them because they were alive at the time of the investigation. That is why there is so much information on the killers and not the victims throughout the book. Capote goes as far to tell us about the killers' childhoods and their ambitions. That is why In Cold Blood is more a story about the killers than the victims.
When recounting the murders of the Clutters, Perry claims that “I didn’t want to harm the man [Mr. Clutter]. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat”(244). Perry reveals that he actually liked Mr. Clutter, as well as the whole Clutter family. This seems strange and ironic, considering that he killed them, but in fact it enables the reader to better understand Perry’s motive for killing the Clutter family. Perry was not driven to murder out of hatred of this specific family. The lives of the victims represented everything that Perry was missing in his own life, and he was driven by the anger and sadness he felt during that realization. Mr. Clutter’s success and respect, Mrs. Clutter’s supportive and loving family, Nancy’s popularity and good looks, and Kenyon's intelligence are different aspects of their lives in which Perry wished he had for himself. It seems that Perry lost control of himself when committing the murders as he drowned in his misery and memories of his troubled upbringing. As Perry notes, “I didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound. Like somebody drowning. Screaming underwater”(224).
Each victim character is portrayed in relation to other people, because that is how they are portrayed to Capote. Obviously the story is about the murder of the victims, but more than that, the book is about the story of the killers and their effect on Holcomb and the surrounding areas. A substantial majority of the pages in In Cold Blood are devoted to the killers' stories. The intentional character development of Perry, and the lack thereof for Dick are very clear and are emphasized throughout the book. Perry get's two monologues that last far longer than any other section of the book, while Dick gets none. Perry shows his compassionate and caring side when telling about the murder, standing up to Dick in regard to raping Nancy; "but you'll have to kill me first" (243), and then showing his compassion even for Dick later on, when Perry wanted to "admit that...he...had shot and killed the whole family" (255). These seemingly out of character acts of compassion on behalf of a killer emphasize how Truman wants to paint a more complicated character that we can even empathize with. Much of the story is devoted to this type of complicated character development.
What I found interesting was that Truman Capote chose to include such detailed and long character developments for the Clutters. When reading, myself and I assume probably most readers, identify most strongly with the Clutter family in the beginning of the book. The way Truman Capote writes In Cold Blood is that the reader gets to know all of the characters; their lives,their passions, their families, and how and why they belong in the book. And in the beginning one would say that the protagonists were the Clutter family. But then the Clutters are murdered. The reader is left (even though most readers possibly knew what was coming) sort of dumbfounded. The question I would like to pose is why would Truman Capote devoted so much time and words to characters when he is just going to kill them off early on in the story? A broader question I am trying to hint at is why does Capote choose to develop the heck at of every single character. To give an example, does the reader truly need to know that the Dewey family "divided between them the household chores" (105) or that Perry "almost married (98) a girl named Cookie.
In Cold Blood is about the murder of the clutter family and the investigation after. Therefore, it makes sense that Capote focuses on the story of the killers and their motives. The Clutters die before the end of the first section and the whole town is in shock. Dewey, a former sheriff, wondered "how two individuals could reach the same degree of rage, the kind of psycopathic rage it took to commit such a crime."(83). The motive for the killing remains a mystery so the rest of the story is about the incentive behind the killing. That is why the story focuses on dick and perry. The climax of the story is getting answers from dick and perry since the reader has been in suspense, wondering why the clutter family was murdered.
Something that stuck out to me when I read the book was Capote’s focus on the killers after the murders and, even more surprising, his apparent concern and sympathy for the murderers. One of the time he provides striking insight into the psyches of the killers is through the perspective of Perry: “And Perry was puzzled; he could not fathom why Dick, usually so full of himself, should suddenly, when he good cause to gloat, be meek, look wilted and sad” (99). With insights like these, Capote makes the book not about the murder, but about the murderers. Not only does Capote focus on the murderers, but at times he sympathises with them; numerous times he goes into Perry’s past to compel sympathy, like when he writes the letter from his father (125-130).
Truman Capote mostly uses the other characters in the novel to tell the reader about the victims: “they were as popular as a family could be” (70). The Clutter family is consistently praised and acknowledged throughout “The Last to See them Alive”; however, the rest of the novel fails to mention them. They become only minor characters in the broader spectrum of the novel. Even more so, in the first section of the book the victims are used to enhance Capote’s descriptions of the main characters, the murderers. Reading about Nancy baking a cake alongside the elaborate descriptions of the killers’ tattoos creates a sharp contrast, enhancing Capote’s images of Perry and Dick. The majority of the book is about the murderers: their physical descriptions, their planning and execution of the crime, the police trying to find them, and their confessions. In actuality, the Clutters are used only to enhance our understanding of Dick and Perry--specifically the different strata of the society the victims and murderers are from. The victims die before the book end, yet the murderers survive with the novel. The reader watches them change, struggle, fight, and grow, while the Clutters are simply resting in their graves.
Although Capote describes the victims extensively in the first section of the book, the other sections are devoted to the murderers and their lives and motivations. He is sympathetic to the victims and portrays them in a somewhat angelic light. The Clutter’s family and friends all held them in the highest regard and their comments helped Capote develop the victims’ characters. One of their neighbors noted,’’ that family represented everything people hereabouts really value and respect’’ (88). The Clutter’s quintessential image is based off the attitudes of their neighbors. However, majority of the book is not devoted to them rather to their murderers. The Clutters are simply a vehicle to tell the story of Dick and Perry and their motivations to murder.
The first part of In Cold Blood is about the Clutter family before they were murdered. We learn about the family dynamics, Mr. Clutter’s job and position in the community, and how other people felt about the Clutters. Even though we learn a lot about the victims, they die in the first chapter. However, the mysteries of the murderer’s motives and objectives aren’t answered until the end of the book proving that the Clutter’s story is a tool to tell the murderer’s story. Most of the book is describing Perry and Dick’s journey from killing the victims to being caught and interviewed. The reader gets more of an insight into the murderer’s minds to feel sympathy towards them. Perry says the killing “made me sick. I was just disgusted.” (240). We see the character development of the murderers rather than the Clutter’s because In Cold Blood is a story of the killers.
Truman Capote provides the reader with exceptional insights into the Clutter family considering he never met them. His ability to achieve this comes from his remarkable interviews with anyone and everyone who had contact with the popular Holcomb family. For example, the reader is given a touching Christmas story of Herb Clutter as a boy; "The snow was high as today, higher, and still coming down-flakes like saucers," (205). Capote obviously received this story from Bobby Rupp and not Mr. Clutter himself, but Capote adds it into the novel because he understands the importance of installing the Clutter members's lives into their murder story, even though he couldn't talk to the victims himself. In Cold Blood is not just a story about the killers, because it is necessary to involve their victims' life stories in order to really comprehend what this book is all about.
Capote begins the book by focusing on the victims and giving small descriptions of who they were. However the rest of the story focuses less on the Clutters and more on the murderers, Perry and Dick. Capote uncovers their pasts, in order to teach the readers of the motives of the assassins. Capote spends time describing the killers personal lives so that the reader can better understand who these people were and why they did what they did. Capote includes a manuscript written by Perry’s father when he was trying to obtain parole. The manuscript includes descriptions of Perry’s upbringing, his father writes, “Rite is rite and wrong is wrong. I don’t stick up for his wrongdoings. He must pay the Hardway when he does wrong, law is Boss he knows that by now” (128) Capote uses this manuscript to reveal Perry’s background in order to help understand why he did what he did.
During the entire first section of In Cold Blood those in the Clutter family are the main characters of the book. The reader sees each member of the family personally, and gains access to important information about their hobbies and ambitions. However, Capote does not include all these details simply to memorialize them. He develops these portraits of the victims in order to help the reader understand the murder case as a whole. Therefore, in order to show the Clutters in the most effective way, Capote must begin to see them, not through his eyes, but through the eyes of those who knew them. Capote had to feel the pride townspeople felt as they saw the Clutter’s “handsome white house, standing on an ample lawn of groomed Bermuda grass” (9). After this first section, the book shifts to primarily focusing on the murderers, and these portraits of the victims fade in the minds of the reader. They are replaced by portraits of the killers which make the reader feel sympathetic, especially for Perry. The book becomes a story of the killers. Nevertheless, I found it impossible to forgive Perry, as bad as his past may have been, because the images of the Clutters were still in the back of my mind. Therefore, In Cold Blood is a story about a murder case which investigates the true character of the killers while still holding them accountable for what they have done to the victims.
In Cold Blood included some simple background information on the victims. He mainly wanted to show that the clutters were a family which no one hated. Someone even suggests that maybe, "Well, it would be mighty easy to make a mistake - take a wrong turn - and end up at Herb's place 'stead of Taylor's"(114). Capote wanted to exemplify that the crime was motiveless. The book switches to being mostly about the killers and the investigation. While the victim is important, most murder stories focus mainly on the killers. Once the clutters died, the towns people stopped caring about them, and only wanted to see someone get thrown in jail.
In Truman Capote's book, In Cold Blood, Capote makes a strong effort to bring the victims to life. This can be easily recognized in the first section of the book, "The Last to See Them Alive". In this section Capote describes each of the four members of the Clutter family, displaying them as real people. While describing Kenyon, Clutter narrates, "He had only one close friend-Bob Jones." Very rarely are victims of a murder described in a subjectively negative light. While Capote does describe Kenyon's weaknesses, he also makes sure to show Kenyon's good side. "Kenyon was a good shot." While Capote certainly focuses his fair share on the murderers, he also does an excellent job of portraying all sides of the victims.
Capote introduces the Clutters before their murder, giving a small introduction to who they are individually and as a family. Mr. Clutter is kind and respected, and even allows his employee to take the morning off to “carry [his baby] to the doctor,” (12). Nancy is described as, “always in a hurry, but [she] always has time. And that’s one definition of a lady” (25). Capote further develops the portraits of the Clutters by including the people of Holcomb’s personal accounts after the murder. However, unlike the Clutters, the murderers are living throughout the entire story, so they are the ones who Capote follows. The entire story is learning about their motives, their rough lives, their faults, and their ambitions. The book doesn’t really go into great detail about Kenyon’s ambitions and personality. Perry and Dick are the characters that the reader really gets to know.
ReplyDeleteCapote describes the victims in depth in the beginning of the first section, as they were before they are murdered. However, this is the only real exposure we have to the victims and their lives throughout the entire book. Capote obviously did his research, and recieved facts from the people closest to the victims, however the reader can never be sure how much of the victims portrayal is accurate. However, the story alternates between the goings on in the town, and the killers. They make up every other chapter of the book. Additionally, Capote includes many personal stories and true letters describing the killers and their personal lives, which attempts to give the reader a better understanding, and even a sort of sympathy, towards the killers. For example, Capote writes many times about how Perry, “when he was seven years old, [...] liv[ed] in a California orphanage run by nuns - shrouded disciplinarians who whipped him for wetting his bed” (92).
ReplyDeleteThe first part of In Cold Blood focuses on the Clutter family before they were killed. We learn some important things for the plot of the book, such as the fact that “[l]ike royalty, [Mr. Clutter] was famous for never carrying cash” (p.46). This becomes important later on, when we discover that Dick originally wanted to rob the Clutters, but was unable to find more than fifty dollars in their home. We also learn about Nancy Clutter’s boyfriend and Mrs. Clutter’s mental illness. We learn that the Clutters were a kind, decent, and friendly family, and that no one had a real motive to kill them. However, parts of the first section and the rest of the book are focusing on Dick, Perry, and the law enforcement trying to bring them to justice. Capote uses testimony of other people and Nancy’s diary to deduce what the Clutters were doing on their last day on earth, but everything mentioned is really about the murderers,providing background to the crime. Capote uses the Clutters to tell the story of Dick and Perry, not to tell the Clutter’s story itself.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of In Cold Blood, Capote recounts the events leading up to the murder. He tells us about the Clutters and about their lifestyle. He gets us “up close and personal” with the family, showing us each of the victims and what they were like. We get different accounts of the Clutters, whether it is from Capote or another character being interviewed. While being interviewed, Mrs. Ashida says in reference to Herb Clutter, “I’ll bet he wasn’t afraid. I mean, however it happened, I’ll bet right up to the last he didn’t believe it would. Because he couldn’t. Not to him” (117). On the other hand, Capote follows the story of the killers, Dick and Perry, the whole time. He goes into detail about where they traveled and their “adventures,” and tells us how they were feeling. This story is largely about the killers, as they are the two people on which Capote mostly focuses.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of In Cold Blood, Capote gives us a brief glimpse in to the lives of the victims, the Clutters. The father, Herbert, is described as being a very prominent community leader. His wife on the other hand, is portrayed as being extremely withdrawn from the community. Capote shows us this when he says ," she was "nervous," she suffered "little spells"- such were the sheltering expressions used by those close to her" (7). This same contrast of character can be found in their children as well. One of the daughters, Nancy, is a very socially adept girl, while her sister, Kenyon, is very awkward. However, the victims are only discussed in the first section of the book. The story is mainly focused on the killers, Richard and Perry. The reason why Capote primarily focuses on the killers is because it was easier to gather information about them because they were alive at the time of the investigation. That is why there is so much information on the killers and not the victims throughout the book. Capote goes as far to tell us about the killers' childhoods and their ambitions. That is why In Cold Blood is more a story about the killers than the victims.
ReplyDeleteWhen recounting the murders of the Clutters, Perry claims that “I didn’t want to harm the man [Mr. Clutter]. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat”(244). Perry reveals that he actually liked Mr. Clutter, as well as the whole Clutter family. This seems strange and ironic, considering that he killed them, but in fact it enables the reader to better understand Perry’s motive for killing the Clutter family. Perry was not driven to murder out of hatred of this specific family. The lives of the victims represented everything that Perry was missing in his own life, and he was driven by the anger and sadness he felt during that realization. Mr. Clutter’s success and respect, Mrs. Clutter’s supportive and loving family, Nancy’s popularity and good looks, and Kenyon's intelligence are different aspects of their lives in which Perry wished he had for himself. It seems that Perry lost control of himself when committing the murders as he drowned in his misery and memories of his troubled upbringing. As Perry notes, “I didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound. Like somebody drowning. Screaming underwater”(224).
ReplyDeleteEach victim character is portrayed in relation to other people, because that is how they are portrayed to Capote. Obviously the story is about the murder of the victims, but more than that, the book is about the story of the killers and their effect on Holcomb and the surrounding areas. A substantial majority of the pages in In Cold Blood are devoted to the killers' stories. The intentional character development of Perry, and the lack thereof for Dick are very clear and are emphasized throughout the book. Perry get's two monologues that last far longer than any other section of the book, while Dick gets none. Perry shows his compassionate and caring side when telling about the murder, standing up to Dick in regard to raping Nancy; "but you'll have to kill me first" (243), and then showing his compassion even for Dick later on, when Perry wanted to "admit that...he...had shot and killed the whole family" (255). These seemingly out of character acts of compassion on behalf of a killer emphasize how Truman wants to paint a more complicated character that we can even empathize with. Much of the story is devoted to this type of complicated character development.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting was that Truman Capote chose to include such detailed and long character developments for the Clutters. When reading, myself and I assume probably most readers, identify most strongly with the Clutter family in the beginning of the book. The way Truman Capote writes In Cold Blood is that the reader gets to know all of the characters; their lives,their passions, their families, and how and why they belong in the book. And in the beginning one would say that the protagonists were the Clutter family. But then the Clutters are murdered. The reader is left (even though most readers possibly knew what was coming) sort of dumbfounded. The question I would like to pose is why would Truman Capote devoted so much time and words to characters when he is just going to kill them off early on in the story? A broader question I am trying to hint at is why does Capote choose to develop the heck at of every single character. To give an example, does the reader truly need to know that the Dewey family "divided between them the household chores" (105) or that Perry "almost married (98) a girl named Cookie.
ReplyDeleteIn Cold Blood is about the murder of the clutter family and the investigation after. Therefore, it makes sense that Capote focuses on the story of the killers and their motives. The Clutters die before the end of the first section and the whole town is in shock. Dewey, a former sheriff, wondered "how two individuals could reach the same degree of rage, the kind of psycopathic rage it took to commit such a crime."(83). The motive for the killing remains a mystery so the rest of the story is about the incentive behind the killing. That is why the story focuses on dick and perry. The climax of the story is getting answers from dick and perry since the reader has been in suspense, wondering why the clutter family was murdered.
ReplyDeleteSomething that stuck out to me when I read the book was Capote’s focus on the killers after the murders and, even more surprising, his apparent concern and sympathy for the murderers. One of the time he provides striking insight into the psyches of the killers is through the perspective of Perry: “And Perry was puzzled; he could not fathom why Dick, usually so full of himself, should suddenly, when he good cause to gloat, be meek, look wilted and sad” (99). With insights like these, Capote makes the book not about the murder, but about the murderers. Not only does Capote focus on the murderers, but at times he sympathises with them; numerous times he goes into Perry’s past to compel sympathy, like when he writes the letter from his father (125-130).
ReplyDeleteTruman Capote mostly uses the other characters in the novel to tell the reader about the victims: “they were as popular as a family could be” (70). The Clutter family is consistently praised and acknowledged throughout “The Last to See them Alive”; however, the rest of the novel fails to mention them. They become only minor characters in the broader spectrum of the novel. Even more so, in the first section of the book the victims are used to enhance Capote’s descriptions of the main characters, the murderers. Reading about Nancy baking a cake alongside the elaborate descriptions of the killers’ tattoos creates a sharp contrast, enhancing Capote’s images of Perry and Dick. The majority of the book is about the murderers: their physical descriptions, their planning and execution of the crime, the police trying to find them, and their confessions. In actuality, the Clutters are used only to enhance our understanding of Dick and Perry--specifically the different strata of the society the victims and murderers are from. The victims die before the book end, yet the murderers survive with the novel. The reader watches them change, struggle, fight, and grow, while the Clutters are simply resting in their graves.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Capote describes the victims extensively in the first section of the book, the other sections are devoted to the murderers and their lives and motivations. He is sympathetic to the victims and portrays them in a somewhat angelic light. The Clutter’s family and friends all held them in the highest regard and their comments helped Capote develop the victims’ characters. One of their neighbors noted,’’ that family represented everything people hereabouts really value and respect’’ (88). The Clutter’s quintessential image is based off the attitudes of their neighbors. However, majority of the book is not devoted to them rather to their murderers. The Clutters are simply a vehicle to tell the story of Dick and Perry and their motivations to murder.
ReplyDeleteThe first part of In Cold Blood is about the Clutter family before they were murdered. We learn about the family dynamics, Mr. Clutter’s job and position in the community, and how other people felt about the Clutters. Even though we learn a lot about the victims, they die in the first chapter. However, the mysteries of the murderer’s motives and objectives aren’t answered until the end of the book proving that the Clutter’s story is a tool to tell the murderer’s story. Most of the book is describing Perry and Dick’s journey from killing the victims to being caught and interviewed. The reader gets more of an insight into the murderer’s minds to feel sympathy towards them. Perry says the killing “made me sick. I was just disgusted.” (240). We see the character development of the murderers rather than the Clutter’s because In Cold Blood is a story of the killers.
ReplyDeleteTruman Capote provides the reader with exceptional insights into the Clutter family considering he never met them. His ability to achieve this comes from his remarkable interviews with anyone and everyone who had contact with the popular Holcomb family. For example, the reader is given a touching Christmas story of Herb Clutter as a boy; "The snow was high as today, higher, and still coming down-flakes like saucers," (205). Capote obviously received this story from Bobby Rupp and not Mr. Clutter himself, but Capote adds it into the novel because he understands the importance of installing the Clutter members's lives into their murder story, even though he couldn't talk to the victims himself. In Cold Blood is not just a story about the killers, because it is necessary to involve their victims' life stories in order to really comprehend what this book is all about.
ReplyDeleteCapote begins the book by focusing on the victims and giving small descriptions of who they were. However the rest of the story focuses less on the Clutters and more on the murderers, Perry and Dick. Capote uncovers their pasts, in order to teach the readers of the motives of the assassins. Capote spends time describing the killers personal lives so that the reader can better understand who these people were and why they did what they did. Capote includes a manuscript written by Perry’s father when he was trying to obtain parole. The manuscript includes descriptions of Perry’s upbringing, his father writes, “Rite is rite and wrong is wrong. I don’t stick up for his wrongdoings. He must pay the Hardway when he does wrong, law is Boss he knows that by now” (128) Capote uses this manuscript to reveal Perry’s background in order to help understand why he did what he did.
ReplyDeleteDuring the entire first section of In Cold Blood those in the Clutter family are the main characters of the book. The reader sees each member of the family personally, and gains access to important information about their hobbies and ambitions. However, Capote does not include all these details simply to memorialize them. He develops these portraits of the victims in order to help the reader understand the murder case as a whole. Therefore, in order to show the Clutters in the most effective way, Capote must begin to see them, not through his eyes, but through the eyes of those who knew them. Capote had to feel the pride townspeople felt as they saw the Clutter’s “handsome white house, standing on an ample lawn of groomed Bermuda grass” (9). After this first section, the book shifts to primarily focusing on the murderers, and these portraits of the victims fade in the minds of the reader. They are replaced by portraits of the killers which make the reader feel sympathetic, especially for Perry. The book becomes a story of the killers. Nevertheless, I found it impossible to forgive Perry, as bad as his past may have been, because the images of the Clutters were still in the back of my mind. Therefore, In Cold Blood is a story about a murder case which investigates the true character of the killers while still holding them accountable for what they have done to the victims.
ReplyDeleteIn Cold Blood included some simple background information on the victims. He mainly wanted to show that the clutters were a family which no one hated. Someone even suggests that maybe, "Well, it would be mighty easy to make a
ReplyDeletemistake - take a wrong turn - and end up at Herb's place 'stead of Taylor's"(114). Capote wanted to exemplify that the crime was motiveless. The book switches to being mostly about the killers and the investigation. While the victim is important, most murder stories focus mainly on the killers. Once the clutters died, the towns people stopped caring about them, and only wanted to see someone get thrown in jail.
In Truman Capote's book, In Cold Blood, Capote makes a strong effort to bring the victims to life. This can be easily recognized in the first section of the book, "The Last to See Them Alive". In this section Capote describes each of the four members of the Clutter family, displaying them as real people. While describing Kenyon, Clutter narrates, "He had only one close friend-Bob Jones." Very rarely are victims of a murder described in a subjectively negative light. While Capote does describe Kenyon's weaknesses, he also makes sure to show Kenyon's good side. "Kenyon was a good shot." While Capote certainly focuses his fair share on the murderers, he also does an excellent job of portraying all sides of the victims.
ReplyDelete