Essential Question 1

[gabrielle]

I think there is a fascination with true crime in America because people are always wondering why that person committed that crime and how they did it. People are also curious as to why they did it. Why would someone commit a crime like murder, for example, when they know they will have to go to jail if they're caught. Is committing murder really worth spending the rest of your life in prison? "In Cold Blood" provides insight into the nature of American crime and how people react to it through the murder of the Clutter family. When people hear of the the family being murdered they are all in shock, but they also go to the Clutter home to see what happened and try to get their questions about the murder answered. People go crazy trying to find out who committed this aweful crime. They also start to live in fear of one another, they begin thinking they might be murdered too. People are horrified by what happened, but they are also obsessed with finding out the truth behind the murder.

[blichtenberg32]

I completely agree, people do all these things described above. But besides the fascination of the crime, people also have a want to learn, for good or for bad. In the American culture people dig to learn the cleverness of highly sophisticated law breakers and why they are doing what they do. Are they doing it for their family? Friends? Themselves? Who knows. That's where the want to learn comes in because it turns into a journey of interesting events leading up to the crime and during. The American people are so fascinated because they want to learn and I believe learning about these things benefits not only ourselves, but our education and society as well.