Post by Lauren O. on Nov 17, 2014 0:56:39 GMT
Literary non-fiction is a stylistically different category of books that are not quite fiction and are not quite non-fiction at the same time. The main concepts of literary non-fiction is that we get into the heads of the humans who truly lived the stories the books are telling. However, there is bias in the way the writer writes the story. The author weaves his opinion within the text. The author makes the story just unrealistic enough that the readers question if the story truly happened. The author also gives the readers an inside view into the minds of the people within the story.
In Cold Blood is a textbook example of "literary non-fiction". It makes readers feel sorry for the murders more than the family who was murdered. True crime reporting makes the murders out to be monsters who have no sole and are devil worshipers. Also true reporting is facts and statistics. Capote did not give many, if any, numerical or scientific statistics in consideration of the murders. There is no sympathy in true crime reporting. Capote lets his emotions take the lead and therefore he writes in attempts to shed light that the murders are similiar to him and that they have emotions. Capote sympathizes with the murders. Capote wants to get others to sympathize with the murders, so this "literary non-fiction" approach effectively made readers have an emotional connection with the murders. And that is exactly what Capote wanted.