Week 4 Essential Question

[brennapayne]

Literary nonfiction involves literary techniques often associated with fiction being used to describe real world or factual events.  In Cold Blood is definitely an example of this genre because of how it is laced with literary devices while still incorporating true incidents.  Literary nonfiction differs from straight crime reporting mainly in the amount of emotional appeal that it has.  For the most part, ordinary crime reporting just includes the cold hard facts, which leaves little room for emotional connection.  The facts are, in a sense, set in stone, meaning they are not easily strewn one way or the other.  Literary nonfiction, on the other hand, offers greater emotional connection.  The literary devices help to build the piece's pathos appeal.  The perception of the facts is dependent on the way the author presents them and comments on them, therefore, the villains could be portrayed as the heroes.  Capote wrote the novel in this genre to outline factual events, yet still communicate his own opinion to his audience.  The fact that his account is deemed nonfiction builds his credibility, establishing trust between himself and his audience.  The literary techniques allow him to take this trust and run with it.  He has them eating out of the palm of his hand.  He evokes sympathy from them.  He can depict the characters in whatever light he decides.  For instance: his illustration of the rough lives of Dick and Perry makes the audience feel a little sorry for the pair.  The audience pities the villains.  Suddenly, the killers do not look so bad.  The audience begins to question if Dick and Perry truly deserve to be punished.  They start to consider the "what ifs".  What if Dick had been able to afford college?  What if Perry's parents had never divorced?  What if Dick and his first wife hadn't been in such huge debt?  What if Perry's brother hadn't committed suicide?  What if Dick had focused more on academics in school?  What if Perry hadn't gotten in an accident?  What if things had "work[ed] out with Willie-Jay"?

[sethfrost]

I agree that Capote manipulates the way the reader views the cases by providing certain aspects of those involved, but I do not think that Dick and Perry seem to look any better to the readers. I think the readers know that Dick and Perry are trying to survive, but killing and stealing could never be acceptable in our society. In life, every thing could be questioned using the word if, but questions that use the word if normally too difficult to answer because they are questioning the past or something ridiculous is being asked and everything is interconnected. If questions do not change what we have done and there is really no way of knowing the answer because it never will happen, but we still tend to wonder what could have been.

[brennapayne]

I agree with you that the readers still look at Perry and Dick and think that they are bad people because they have committed murder, which, in our society today is unacceptable. However, I still believe that in a sense, you do pity them. You pity them because of their tough lives and their constant struggle. You pity the old Perry and Dick; the pre-murder Perry and Dick. When Capote flashes back to their lives before the crime, you feel okay sympathizing with them since, up until that point, they have only committed smaller crimes that do not significantly harm others. Although we as readers do not condone the Clutter shooting, we can still feel sorry for Dick and Perry as ordinary people. We can feel for them in their simple, daily struggles, yet, in the back of our mind we still remember that they are killers.

[Sarah]

I agree with both Brenna and Seth in the fact that the readers sympathize Dick and Perry. I think Capote does an excellent job of portraying these two characters as an inferior pair. By this, I mean Capote makes it seem as if the two need sympathy and they only murdered the Clutter family because they had no where else to turn. As a reader, I find myself searching for a way to look at them in a negative way but instead I find myself looking at them as hopeless souls that need a little bit of assistance- not as murderers.