Post by aliviasteffen on Oct 31, 2014 20:43:25 GMT
1. Why is there a fascination with true crime in America? In what ways does In Cold Blood provide insight into the nature of American crime and how we react to it?
People in America are completely fascinated in crime that happens here, and I feel like this is because people are utterly nosy. They like to know what's going on in the world even it doesn't even pertain to them in the slightest. We've literally made TV shows(such as CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds or I Almost Got Away With it) that exemplify people in bad ways and it is adherently exciting for people to watch others basically go through with the crimes they've committed and see what's it's like on the other side of those jail walls-see what it's like from the criminals perspective. But there are other things that people watch that aren't really meant for entertainment, but for information, such as the news. Citizens watch the news to learn about occurrences in their neighborhood, such as occurrences of crime. The news seems to really be meant for awareness in the community, to keep families safe and to look out for anybody that may be "wanted." Others just like the thrill and excitement of a mystery. Also from time to time, people tend to legitimately care about what happens to someone and want things to be settled, such as finding the people whom committed a crime(Dick and Perry). And I think the situation that happened in Holcomb was a situation of people caring about the Clutter family, although some of the people involved could've just been involved for the mystery of it. But, it seemed to be that everyone wanted to know what happened and find out who did. Most of the people seemed to genuinely care about the Clutter's, because they were such a like-able family. Everyone was at least a little nosy in this situation, and seemed to be trying to get involved in it, such as finding clues like when the K.B.I. agent, Mrs. Kelm and Mrs. Elaine Selsor went searching in the River Valley farm house. The people honestly reacted to how they normally do, by panicking. One family of the Holcomb citizens, the Ashidas, had left partly because of it. Anything as devastating as that can do some serious damage to a community, but I honestly believe that people are at least a tiny bit curious in these situations, even I in this book am curious about what happened even though I already know.
2. Perry says to Dick: “…once a thing is set to happen, all you can do is hope it won’t. Or will – depending. As long as you live, there’s always something waiting, and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do?” (92) What does Perry mean by this statement? Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
I think Perry means that once something is set in stone, it is bound to happen, like this specific thing was meant to happen, even when you don't know that it was. I think he's saying you can't change destiny, he and Dick were destined to do this awful thing. And in your life, there's something always coming your way and you cant change whether it happens or not, even if it is something bad. I agree with this because either way you end up doing whatever event that came across your path, such as murdering a family. But I truly believe that if someone sits and marinates on what they know is something bad, they can change that bad thing from happening. If Perry had thought about what he was about to do before he did it, the Clutters might have been able to live their lives fully and there wouldn't have been a whole village grieving over the loss. So I disagree with that part, because if you sit and think about if something is truly morally wrong, you more than likely won't end up doing whatever that horrible action was. Sometimes there are humans that are in the heat of the moment and don't sit down and truly think about what they're doing/ about to do, and I think that's what Perry did, he did what he "needed" to do and then left. Once Perry thought about this, though, he realizes that it was probably morally wrong to do what he did and even seems to regret it a little.
People in America are completely fascinated in crime that happens here, and I feel like this is because people are utterly nosy. They like to know what's going on in the world even it doesn't even pertain to them in the slightest. We've literally made TV shows(such as CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds or I Almost Got Away With it) that exemplify people in bad ways and it is adherently exciting for people to watch others basically go through with the crimes they've committed and see what's it's like on the other side of those jail walls-see what it's like from the criminals perspective. But there are other things that people watch that aren't really meant for entertainment, but for information, such as the news. Citizens watch the news to learn about occurrences in their neighborhood, such as occurrences of crime. The news seems to really be meant for awareness in the community, to keep families safe and to look out for anybody that may be "wanted." Others just like the thrill and excitement of a mystery. Also from time to time, people tend to legitimately care about what happens to someone and want things to be settled, such as finding the people whom committed a crime(Dick and Perry). And I think the situation that happened in Holcomb was a situation of people caring about the Clutter family, although some of the people involved could've just been involved for the mystery of it. But, it seemed to be that everyone wanted to know what happened and find out who did. Most of the people seemed to genuinely care about the Clutter's, because they were such a like-able family. Everyone was at least a little nosy in this situation, and seemed to be trying to get involved in it, such as finding clues like when the K.B.I. agent, Mrs. Kelm and Mrs. Elaine Selsor went searching in the River Valley farm house. The people honestly reacted to how they normally do, by panicking. One family of the Holcomb citizens, the Ashidas, had left partly because of it. Anything as devastating as that can do some serious damage to a community, but I honestly believe that people are at least a tiny bit curious in these situations, even I in this book am curious about what happened even though I already know.
2. Perry says to Dick: “…once a thing is set to happen, all you can do is hope it won’t. Or will – depending. As long as you live, there’s always something waiting, and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do?” (92) What does Perry mean by this statement? Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
I think Perry means that once something is set in stone, it is bound to happen, like this specific thing was meant to happen, even when you don't know that it was. I think he's saying you can't change destiny, he and Dick were destined to do this awful thing. And in your life, there's something always coming your way and you cant change whether it happens or not, even if it is something bad. I agree with this because either way you end up doing whatever event that came across your path, such as murdering a family. But I truly believe that if someone sits and marinates on what they know is something bad, they can change that bad thing from happening. If Perry had thought about what he was about to do before he did it, the Clutters might have been able to live their lives fully and there wouldn't have been a whole village grieving over the loss. So I disagree with that part, because if you sit and think about if something is truly morally wrong, you more than likely won't end up doing whatever that horrible action was. Sometimes there are humans that are in the heat of the moment and don't sit down and truly think about what they're doing/ about to do, and I think that's what Perry did, he did what he "needed" to do and then left. Once Perry thought about this, though, he realizes that it was probably morally wrong to do what he did and even seems to regret it a little.