Truman Capote
In Cold Blood
The Man…
A short synopsis
Truman Capote, best known for his works Breakfast at Tiffany's
and In Cold Blood, reached a pinnacle that many writer's dream
of but few ever ascend. And no one climbed to that summit like
Capote. Truman pioneered a new literary genre, the Nonfiction
Novel, with what many claim as his ultimate work, In Cold
Blood, the story of a rural Kansas murder recounting
journalistic facts with the flair of prose.
Early Life
Born in New Orleans and spending most of his early
childhood with his aunts and distant cousins in Alabama,
Truman Capote would always maintain a deep connection
with the south, even after becoming the center of
attention in Manhattan high society.
Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons on September
30, 1924 to Lillie Mae Faulk and Arch Persons. Lillie Mae
(who would later abandon her southern roots and change
her name to Nina) was always looking for a way to climb
the social ladder.
Continued…
The fact that Truman Capote was born at all is a bit of a miracle,
and he owes this to his stern and dedicated cousin, Jennie Faulk,
Jennie had raised Lillie Mae and the two often battled over the
life Lillie Mae was living. Lillie Mae's pregnancy was one of
those battles and would become the most important for
Truman. On finding out that she was pregnant, Lillie Mae
returned to her southern home and sought an abortion.
Adamantly opposed, Jennie finally won and Lillie Mae accepted
her responsibility as a mother.
Continued…
Truman also had the good fortune of meeting a friend in his
southern neighbor, Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird). Truman
was the basis for Lee's character, Dill, in her famous book and
Truman is rumored to have helped Lee write the novel. The two
remained friends throughout and Lee would later accompany
Truman in his research about the Kansas murders that would
become In Cold Blood.
Continued
Lillie Mae's early rejection of Truman was to be a sign of how her
relationship with her son would remain throughout his life. Abandoned
by his mother with his cousins, Lillie Mae was free to begin separating
herself from her husband Arch. Arch was not any more of a father to
Truman than Lillie Mae was a mother. After he and Lillie Mae separated
and divorced in 1931, Arch agreed to spend the summer's with Truman,
but instead traveled the country in search of his next big deal. Lillie Mae,
now free to try again to reach social elevation, found what she was
looking for in Joseph Capote. She and Capote married and she moved to
New York City with Joe to begin her new life, a life that rarely included
her son.
Dreams and Aspirations…
As smart and as sharp as Truman was, he was not very interested in
school. He was, however, consumed with writing. He would practice
writing the way other children would practice football or piano.
Truman didn't so much dream about being a writer as he already
considered himself one. Instead, he envisioned himself writing for the
elite magazine, The New Yorker.
In 1941, while repeating his senior year of high school, Truman got a
job as a copy boy for the magazine he idolized. The New Yorker's
working environment was quite the opposite of the high society image
the magazine portrayed. Truman, a flamboyant, eccentric, and very
noticeable boy, stood out like a neon light in a dark alley.
Popularity
Truman always maintained a high, lispy voice and boyish looks.
Combined with his short stature, this led many to assume that
he was much younger than he was. His appearance often led to
his advantage as many of the important figures that would help
his career took on a motherly or fatherly role with him. The fact
that Truman was easy to like and often befriended people that
were not helped him in many situations and soon Truman was
invited to social parties and was the talk of the town.
Early Career
Truman had joined The New Yorker in hopes that he would learn more about his
craft and that they would eventually hire him as a writer. The New Yorker,
however, was not interested in hiring a copy boy and the work the Truman was
writing was not well suited for the publication. In 1944 he left the magazine,
(either resigned or was fired) for offending Robert Frost. Sick with a cold, Truman
left in the middle of Frost's reading. Outraged, Frost, knowing that Capote worked
for the New Yorker, immediately took the matter up with the magazine.
Leaving the New Yorker was one of the best things to happen to Capote. Soon he
began submitting his stories (Miriam, Tree of Night, My Side of the Matter) to
more suitable magazines including Mademoiselle and Harper's Bizarre. The
immediate acceptance of his work and fame that followed launched Truman into
the social and literary world he had been seeking.
Sexuality
Truman was never one to hide his homosexuality. In fact, many gay and
lesbian groups today praise Truman for his bravery both in social life
and in his writings. While his mother never accepted his choice and
often tried to change her son, Truman owned his sexuality at an early
age and lived it to his fullest.
Like many in the social elite, Truman had many relationships. Most
notably perhaps is his long time affair with Jack Dunphy whom he met
in 1948. Though not an exclusive relationship, the two of them would
remain together in one way or another throughout their lives and
shared separate houses on the same property.
Continued…
The contrast of southern life and big city society, along with Truman's sexual
themes in many of his stories, helped define Capote as a writer. But that was
only part of what made his stories successful. Truman also had a sensitivity
and a flare for being able to capture the truth of real life. This great ability
lead to what would become one of his greatest works, Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Through all his successful writings, Truman still felt that he was lacking
something. He was looking to create something new, not just a new story,
but a new way of telling a story. When Truman read about the 1959 killings
of the Clutter Family in rural Holcomb Kansas, Truman had found his muse.
http://www.capotebio.com/
The Non-Fiction Novel
• With the publication of In Cold Blood, Truman Capote debuted a new literary
genre: the non- fiction novel. The non-fiction novel presents real events through
the use of literary techniques generally associated with fiction narratives. In the
case of In Cold Blood, Capote used newspaper accounts, investigative reports,
letters, and interviews to piece together the story of the Clutter murders and the
subsequent hunt for and eventual execution of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith.
Capote traveled to the Holcomb area just months after the murders, and he spent
six years collecting information, interviewing residents, and observing the work of
the Kansas Bureau of Investigations under the leadership of Al Dewey. Yet, like a
novel, the story is presented in vivid sentences and filled with evocative
descriptions, poignant word choice, and lyrical images.
Continued…
As a non-fiction novel, the text does not present the voice of the author
or a specific narrator but, instead, relates the events and presents details
from the points of view of different characters. The genre is closely
associated with the journalistic novel and is generally considered to be a
forerunner of the True Crime genre. True Crime has since evolved into
one of the most popular literary genres, often exploiting highly
sensationalized crimes. True Crime most frequently presents real, often
well-publicized, murder cases and focuses on investigative strategies and
criminal psychology, including psychological profiling of perpetrators
and victims.
Narrative Point-of-View
Within each section of the text, the narrative viewpoint shifts
between presenting events and details from the perspective of
the Clutter family, the citizens of Holcomb, and the Kansas
Bureau of Investigations investigators to the perspectives of
Richard Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote himself never
interjects the narrative with his authorial voice. Instead, he
relies on the voice of his characters, including letters,
interviews, newspaper accounts, etc., to present the events.
Continued
Whenever Capote presents the perspective of the Clutters and their
neighbors, his sentences are well-developed, complex, with vivid,
descriptive diction. Whenever the perspective shifts toward the points of
view of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, the sentence structure tends to
be shorter and frequently interfused with fragments. Additionally,
sections presenting Perry and Dick’s world often utilize colloquialisms
and slang. The shift in narrative tone helps reinforce the social
discrepancy between the comfortable middle-class world of the Clutters
and the lower-class, poverty-stricken world of Dick and Perry.
The Debate
Can Non-Fiction Novels be Truly Non-Fiction?
• Some say yes, it can be non-fiction. In Capote’s case, he felt
he was merely adding spice to an archaic medium that
needed some flare to truly capture the attention of an
audience.
• Others say no. When you add the dramatics of a novel to the
truth of a non-fiction piece, you lose your objectivity. You
start making moves that suggest favoritism towards one
subject over the other, and in that, the non-fiction attributes
are lost.
Socratic Seminar
The Text
The Murder
On the day of the murder, Hickock and Smith drove across
Kansas, located the Clutter household and entered the premises
while the family lay sleeping. After they roused the family and
discovered there was no money to be found, Smith – who was
notoriously prone to violent outbursts – slit Herb’s throat and
then shot him in the head.
Continued…
The rest of the family members were killed by a single gun shot to the
head.
In his confession, Smith claimed that Hickock murdered the two women
but Hickock maintained that Smith was responsible for all four deaths.
Both men pleaded temporary insanity at the trial, but after evaluation it
was determined that both men were in fact sane.
After 5 years on death row, both men were executed in April of 1965.
Truman Capote’s Account
In Cold Blood was originally published in The New Yorker as a
four-part series, beginning on September 25, 1965. It sold out
immediately.
It was published by Random House for the first time as a novel
in 1966.
America in the 1950’s
1950s American society was marked by an expanding middle
class, confident consumer spending, and the early development
of American suburbia. Having emerged from its involvement in
World War II, America was eager to focus on the proliferation of
an affluent middle class at home. The popularization of the
automobile and new product advertising through television
and magazines revolutionized American households.
Continued…
Most middle class homes quickly came to be equipped with
television sets, microwave ovens, and washing machines. A
booming construction industry helped develop the earliest
American suburbs, and the first enclosed shopping malls
appeared and soon drastically changed the American
landscape. As Americans migrated to comfortable communities
on the outskirts of cities, those cities entered a period of
deterioration and social and economic decline that, in many
instances, has lasted well into the twenty-first century.
Continued…
While the American economy was prosperous and progressive
throughout the 1950s, American society was marked by social
conservatism and conformity. America’s ongoing involvement
in the Cold War, which lasted from 1945 through 1991,
presented an ideological clash between the capitalist consumer
culture of the United States and the Western world on the one
hand and the Communist regime of the Soviet Union and its
allies on the other hand.
Continued…
Cold War tensions brought about a widespread fear of
Communism and even escalated into irrational and unfounded
persecution of individuals suspected to be Communist allies.
The proliferation of anti-Communist propaganda that
accompanied US Senator Joseph McCarthy’s “Communist
Witch Hunts” created an atmosphere of social compliance, fear,
and intolerance.
Limitations of The American Dream
In Cold Blood presents a conflicted image of the notion of the
American Dream. The text portrays a prosperous, homogenous,
middle-class community, Holcomb, Kansas, that is forced to
question its values and its sense of safety and security when the
Clutter family is murdered.
Continued…
Capote’s text was among a growing number of novels and plays
written in the early part of the twentieth century that
questioned the validity of the promises made by the American
Dream. Texts such as Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, John
Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The
Great Gatsby, among many others, simultaneously celebrate
and criticize the concept of an American Dream.
Continued…
These texts warn Americans not to take the Dream for granted
and encourage readers to recognize that the American Dream is
available only to a small group of individuals while excluding a
vast majority of people from its promises.
Continued…
• In In Cold Blood, the city of Holcomb and surrounding Finney County
are portrayed as a prosperous community:
“The last seven years have been years of doubtless beneficence. The farm
ranchers in Finney County, of which Holcomb is a part, have done well;
money has been made not from farming alone but also from the
exploitation of plentiful natural- gas resources, and its acquisition is
reflected in the new school, the comfortable interiors of the farmhouses,
the steep and swollen grain elevators.”
Continued…
The Clutter family in particular is among the most affluent citizens in the
Holcomb community. Herb Clutter is considered to be “the community’s
most widely known citizen, prominent both there and in Garden City.”
Having expanded his River Valley Farm into a lucrative operation with
several employees, Herb Clutter is able to provide a comfortable life for
his family, providing a modern lifestyle that includes automobiles and
televisions: “Always certain of what he wanted from the world, Mr.
Clutter had in large measure obtained it.” For families like the Clutters,
the American Dream has been realized.
Continued…
But In Cold Blood also portrays the failure of the American
Dream. For Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, a modern,
comfortable middle-class lifestyle is unattainable. Raised in a
dysfunctional family, Perry Smith considers himself to be
misunderstood and, like Richard Hickock, falls into a life of
petty crime. Unable to create a stable existence, the two ex-cons
accept their roles as society outsiders and survive by stealing
and writing false checks.
Continued…
Perry Smith dreams of a better life in Mexico, where he hopes
to find a hidden treasure buried deep in the ocean. The attack
on the Clutter family is designed to provide the two men with
the financial means to relocate. Capote outlines their dreams of
a better life: “Still no sign of Dick. But he was sure to show up;
after all, the purpose of their meeting was Dick’s idea, his
‘score’. And when it was settled –Mexico.”
Continued…
But the American Dream not only fails Dick Hickock and Perry
Smith because they come from lower-class families and drift
into a life of crime. The two men, particularly Perry Smith, are
also haunted by psychological challenges. Richard Hickock
chases women, but is secretly struggling with his sexual
attraction to children. Perry Smith is physically handicapped as
a result of a car accident. He is depressed and feels
misunderstood.
Continued…
He suffers from feelings of shame due to his physical deformity.
Considering himself to be a creative and artistic genius, Perry cannot fit
into a world that does not share or recognize his vision. Perry’s wish of
becoming an artist remains confined to his daydreams:
“Singing, and the thought of doing so in front of an audience, was
another mesmeric way of whittling hours. He always used the same
mental scenery—a night club in Las Vegas, which happened to be his
home town. It was an elegant room filled with celebrities excitedly
focused on the sensational new star.”
Continued…
Both criminals eventually undergo psychiatric evaluations as
they await their trial, and although the court system finds both
of them to be mentally stable, Capote leaves his readers with
the suggestion that the system at large has failed these two
young men, ignored their psychiatric needs, and ultimately
turned them into social outcasts and criminals.
Major Themes: Loss of Innocence
The Clutter killings are a turning point for the citizens of
Holcomb and Garden City: for the first time, the dangerous
wider world seems to threaten their peaceful existence, and
their former naïveté gives way to feelings of doubt, fear and
suspicion. According to Capote, it is the first time the citizens of
this part of Kansas have had to endure the “unique experience
of distrusting each other”
Continued…
Their version of the American dream – of safety, security, and
the ability to determine their own fate – becomes undermined,
if not entirely thwarted, by the victimization of the Clutters.
Their view of the world must suddenly include another kind of
person, a poor, embittered, “rootless” person, for whom this
dream was never an option in the first place.
Major Themes: The Banality of Evil
When the murders are first discovered, Perry and Dick, as
“persons unknown,” are elevated to an inhuman, almost mythic
stature, the essence of a pure and motiveless evil that has come
to destroy the peaceful lifestyle of the Holcomb residents.
Capote, however, replaces this simplistic view with a more
nuanced and sensitive interpretation, by exploring the material,
psychological, environmental circumstances that cause two
otherwise ordinary human beings to commit such an atrocious
act.
Continued…
Throughout the novel, Perry and Dick are transformed from heartless,
cold-blooded menaces, whose actions seem to defy human logic, into
the fraught, pitiful, completely humanized individuals they are at the end
of the book, and the crime itself is boiled down to a very basic and fairly
understandable set of emotional responses. Although he does not
attempt to excuse their actions, Capote shows how ordinary feelings of
frustration and despair accidentally erupt into such an extraordinary
crime. The book seems to contend that criminality and “evil” are not
things apart, as we tend to define them, but normal human responses
that merely become amplified and find a destructive outlet.
Major Themes: Family
Family life is a key determinant of individual character in the
context of the book. The Clutters, who symbolize the utmost
integrity of family life, are obliterated by Perry, who represents
everything it means to come from a broken home.
Continued
The Clutters’ uprightness is related to the strength of their
family, as Perry’s criminality is connected to the dissolution of
his own kinship ties. In spirit, Dick is still wedded to his first
wife, and his dreams of becoming self-sufficient are linked to
the ability to support her and their three sons. The strength of a
person’s family ties has the larger implication of whether that
person can live happily, well-off, and in a self-determined
fashion.
Major Themes: Socioeconomic Status
The Clutter killings are symbolic of a class conflict, highlighting
the discrepancy between the affluent, middle-class,
predominantly white citizens of Holcomb and the
underprivileged, working-class, mixed-race (in the case of
Perry) killers. Theft is the only form of economic mobility that
Perry and Dick have ever known, as neither of them have had a
chance at a proper education or a solid career (Dick, we learn,
could not afford to attend college, and Perry was forced to help
his father earn their basic subsistence in Alaska).
Continued…
Economic insecurity is at the root of the murders on every level:
it forms the initial motive for the break-in (to steal the contents
of Herb Clutter’s safe), and later on causes Perry to feel
ashamed, for “crawling on my belly to steal a child’s silver
dollar”, a sentiment which is ultimately to blame for the fatal
turn the robbery takes.
Major Themes: Self Image
The theme of self- or ego-image is crucial to understanding the
interpersonal dynamics of Perry and Dick, especially those that
lead to the eventual murder spree. Both men, Perry especially,
are highly image-conscious and attuned to how others perceive
them. Towards the end of the book, we learn from Perry’s
psychiatric evaluation that he is “overly sensitive to criticisms
that others make of him, and cannot tolerate being made fun of.
He is quick to sense slight or insult in things others say.”
Continued…
• In some sense, the rivalry between Dick and Perry is a mutual struggle
for self-recognition, with each wishing the other man would validate
his own self-image (this may be fueled, as some critics have suggested,
by homoerotic desire). Self-image represents, in a larger sense, social
status and self-determination, neither of which is available to these
men. For Perry, the botched robbery at the Clutters is a painful
reminder of his own lack of means or social mobility, and his feelings
of shame and self-loathing at this realization are ultimately at the root
of his homicidal rampage.
Major Themes: Homosexuality
Homoerotic desire is just below the surface of the relationship
between Dick and Perry, between Perry and Willie-Jay, and,
more implicitly, in the meta-textual relationship of Truman
Capote to his two subjects. Whether or not these attractions
were overtly acknowledged or even consciously realized by
their subjects (Capote thought it was likely that both men had
repressed these feelings), they are a palpable subtext of the
narrative and serve several functions.
Continued…
On one level, they elucidate the relationship of Dick and Perry,
adding a layer of intensity to their interactions that helps to
explain why, for example, they might have become so
frustrated at the Clutter home, or why so much of Perry’s selfimage rests on Dick’s opinion of him. But the theme of
homosexuality also functions as a larger symbol of, and
premise for, Dick and Perry’s status as outsiders, social misfits
for whom conventional society seems to have no place.
Continued…
At the time that In Cold Blood was penned, homosexuals were
considered a threat to the social order, so much so that the F.B.I.
kept official watch lists in order to monitor their activities. This
unspoken element of their relationship heightens the intensity
of their clash with conservative, small-town American life, and
raises the stakes of the murder trial by a perceptible margin.
Major Themes: Mental Illness
Perry and Dick’s criminal tendencies are revealed to have
underlying medical causes (Perry suffers from paranoid
schizophrenia, and Dick has brain damage from a concussion);
the difficulty of the murder trial becomes, to what extent are
they still accountable for their actions?
Continued…
In a larger sense, the book seems to grapple with the question
of whether the same moral standards are applicable to all
people, regardless of their upbringing and their life
circumstances; or whether Perry and Dick are in some measure
redeemed (at least morally, if not legally) by the fact of their
mental illness, and the fact that their own lives have been so
lacking.