In Cold Blood
Written by: Truman Capote
Valentyne
Failure is the condiment that gives success its
flavor.
–Capote
Truman’s Life Trick
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Born in New Orleans, on September 30, 1924
Truman was homosexual.
At an early age he began secretly writing.
His full name is Truman Streckfus Persons.
Growing up, he didn’t get to see his mom and dad much. He struggled with
the feeling of abandonment from them until they got divorced.
In 1932, he lived with is mother full time. She didn’t turn out to be the mom
he thought she would be.
In 1935, his name was changed to Truman Garcia Capote; due to his step
father adopting him.
1933 to 1936 he attended a private boys’ school.
In 1936 to 1937 his mother took him out and out and put him into a Military
Academy.
That didn’t work out, he then went to a public school in Greenwich,
Connecticut
More of the dudes life
• He dropped out of high school at age seventeen and got
a job at The New Yorker.
• In the late 1960s, Truman started to suffer from writers
block.
• In the 1970s he published many chapters of Answered
Prayers in Esquire Magazine. It included personal details
about his friends; Therefore they felt betrayed and they
refused to talk to him.
• He suffered from alcoholism and narcotic abuse. His
health also wasn’t too hot.
• He died from liver failure on August 25, 1984.
Truman’s Major Works Bro
• Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948)
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Grass Harp, The (novel) (1951)
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Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958)
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Christmas Memory (1966)
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In Cold Blood (1965)
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Answered Prayers (1986)
Props to Truman
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O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories for “Miriam” (1946)
O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories, First Prize for “Shut a Final Door”
(1948)
O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories, Third Prize for “The House of
Flowers” (1951)
National Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature (1959)
Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Motion Picture Screenplay for The Innocents
(1962)
Inducted as a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1964)
Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Fact Crime, for In Cold Blood (1966)
Emmy Award for the television adaptation of “A Christmas Memory” (1967)
Setting wooooahhh!
• The book took place in the village of
Holcomb, in the western part of Kansas.
• Took place along time ago, 1950’s?
Who The Heck Are They?!
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Herb Clutter- Owner of River Valley Farm, Herb wears the pants of the Clutter family,
he is the husband to Bonnie Clutter. Father to four children: Eveanna, Beverly, Nancy
and Kenyon. He is a generous employer, and an active churchgoer and “die-hard
community booster”. He runs a disciplined household, and keeps himself to a strict
day-to-day routine. However, his honorable and wealthy lifestyle puts him into the
hands of his killers, who make him first the target of their attempted robbery and,
later, a scapegoat for their own resentments.
Bonnie Clutter- Herb’s wife and mother to Nancy and Kenyon, Bonnie is a slight,
nervous, apologetic woman who suffers from chronic postpartum depression, leaving
her bedridden on many days. Having lived a sheltered childhood, she gave up her
training as a nurse to marry Herb and settle into her responsibilities as a housewife.
Her depression has gradually isolated her from many of her close friends, and she
spends her last afternoon locked away in her room, regretting her inability to socialize
or be a stronger mother to her children.
Nancy Clutter- sixteen years old and a model student. She is the president of her
class and a leader in many of the community activities. She gives her time to younger
girls teaching them music, baking and sewing. She’s dating a boy named Bobby
Rupp and says she’s in love. Her father wishes she would break off the relationship
with him because Bobby is Catholic and they are Methodist. This causes conflict
between Nancy and her father. Nancy spends her last day baking a cherry pie with
her young neighbor, instructing another girl in music, and caring for her horse, Babe.
During the attempted robbery, prior to her murder, she manages the situation by
chatting with the intruders in a cool and friendly way; Perry later claims to have liked
her, in spite of what he later does to her.
And some more……..
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Kenyon Clutter- he is fifteen and more on the loner side unlike his sister. He is
not interested in dating. He’d rather spend his time in the basement workshop
where he does carpentry and mechanical projects. He also enjoys hunting
rabbits and spending time with his best friend, Bob Jones.
Perry Edward Smith- Perry is the murderer of the Clutter family. He originally
resists the idea of the robbery, but the charged atmosphere of the Clutter home
prompt him to a rage of frustration and resentment, and the Clutters become
the unfortunate targets of his fury. Before this incident he was sensitive,
thoughtful, creative, and highly intelligent. He came from a troubled
background, and he harbors escapist fantasies of grand adventures in exotic
locales. His demure, reflective presence is a sharp contrast to Dick’s
bombastic (overbearing) personality, and the pair spend much of their time at
friendly odds with one another.
Richard (Dick) Eugene Hickock- He began the plan to rob the clutter’s place.
When the time came to act in the murder he chickened out and was a spectator
while Perry killed the members of the Clutter family. Dick is a cocky, selfassured, smooth-talking petty criminal, who is always searching to make a
quick profit, but at times his ranting exceeds his real commitment to the plans
he initiates. In Perry’s eyes, Dick is a real “masculine type”. By the end of the
book we began to understand some of his insecurities. Those being his failure
to achieve financial security and support his first wife, Carol, and their three
children, and his sexual interest in young girls, both of which he compensates
for with daring and reckless criminal actions.
Would you look at this…There's
MORE!
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Alvin Dewey- The lead investigator of the Clutter case. He was also friends
with Herb and Bonnie therefore he sacrificed his physical and mental health
and went all out to track down the killer(s) and to solve the case. He lives in
Garden City with his wife and two sons, and through Dewey you experience
the many mixed emotions throughout the town pertaining to the search,
arrest, and trial of the two killers.
Susan Kidwell- she is Nancy’s closest friend; she is one of two girls to
discover the murders on the morning of November 15th. Within the novel,
she reflects fondly on her friendship with Nancy and her childhood
memories at the Clutters’, becoming a symbol of graceful and forgiving
flexibility in the upset of the unspeakable.
Bobby Rupp- Nancy’s boyfriend, who is also the star of the high school
basketball team. Right after the discovery of the murders he is singled out
as a main suspect. Which added personal humiliation and sadness brought
on by the loss of Nancy and her family.
The What?!
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Major Themes: Modern-day Mythology/Epic Storytelling , Loss of
Innocence/Undermining the American Dream , The Banality of Evil , Family
, Socioeconomic Status , Self-Image , Homosexuality , and mental illness.
Tone: somber and serious
Language: said to be part of the “New Journalism” but now looked at as a
Non-fiction novel.
Time Period: 1959- 1965
Summary dude!
On November 14, 1959 Herbert Clutter and his family do their daily routine for
the “last” time; which consisted of checking out the farm, baking cherry pies, and
running errands. On the other side of Kansas, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock met
up and get the car fixed up and ready for the long ride to the other side of Kansas.
They make many stops on the way to their destination. Their stops consisted of
getting supplies for their plan, gas and food. When Dick was in jail he shared a cell
with a guy named Floyd Wells and that’s where he got this idea about the Clutters
keeping a safe in their house with 10,000 dollars in it. Floyd also gave him a layout
of the house. This is where Dick and Perry came up with the idea of robbing the
Clutters. They arrived at the Clutters late at night and quietly break in. With a shot
gun they stole and a knife in hand they raged through the house; no safe was to be
found. The book doesn’t explain what happens at first, as you read on you find out
what happens when Perry explains it. On the morning of November 15th a friend of
Nancy’s shows up at the Clutters place to go to church with them. No one answers,
this is very unusual for the Clutters so she goes and gets Susan Kidwell (Nancy’s
best friend). They then go back to the farm and go in the house together. There
they find Nancy (daughter/sister) dead on her bed, with a shot gun bullet to the
head. When the police and ambulance show up Bonnie (mother/wife) is also found
dead in her bed with a bullet to the head. In the basement Kenyon (son/brother)
was found gagged and shot in the face. Herb (father/husband) was also found
gagged but had his throat cut. The only evidence found was two sets of foot prints
and the material Dick and Perry bought to retrain the Clutters. Fear and sadness
broke out throughout the town. Things like this never really happened in this quiet
peaceful town. Alvin Dewey investigates this crime scene along with other special
agents. Far away now, Perry and Dick are reading about the crime in the
newspaper. They are convinced that there is no way they will be traced back to the
crime. They then make some money by writing bad checks and then booking it to
Mexico. Throughout the narration, details are revealed about the bloody night on
November 14th.
When will it end?
The investigators questioned Floyd and he told them everything that he told
Dick. Following up on Floyds testimony, they found out that Dick and Perry were
traveling the night of the murders. Meanwhile, Dick and Perry are back in the United
States and are hitchhiking, roaming the countryside. After six weeks of the murders, in
Los Vegas the police trace a stolen car to Dick and Perry and they are taken in just
before New Years’. During the interrogation, the detectives begin to realize that these
two mean are involved in the quadruple homicide. After Dick is caught in many lies and
untruthful alibis, the detectives succeed in getting the confession out of him but he
blames all of the murders on Perry. Agent Dewey convinces Perry that Dick had
confessed to the crime so Perry gives a drawn out explanation on how the murders
happened. Perry and Dick are put on trial in Garden City. During the trial the two go
through a psychiatric evaluation. Results show that both show signs of mental illness
and emotional dysfunction. Perry almost suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and Dick
has brain damage due to his car accident during his younger years. The doctors
concluded that Perry did what he did because everything the Clutters had, was denied
in his life and he resented the fact. Regardless of that information it was thrown out due
to M’Naghten rule, which disregards mental illness in determining whether criminals are
responsible for their actions and the two are found guilty of four counts of murder in the
first degree, and sentenced to death by hanging. They are held on death row for five
years and are hung on April 14th, 1965 in front of twenty witnesses. The end of the
novel Alvin Dewey visits the cemetery where the Clutters are buried, sensation at the
resolution of life, even in the result of such hopeless tragedy.
My Thoughts Mon.
• In my opinion this novel was extremely
long and hard to follow. When I completed
the book that’s when I fully understood the
full story. The author wrote this novel kind
of weirdly, Its hard to explain. Regardless
I’m glad I chose this book to read.
…uhhhhh
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"Truman Capote." Bio. True Story. A&E Television Networks., n.d. Web. 24 Feb 2011.
<http://www.biography.com/featured-biography/truman-capote/.>
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Capote, Truman. "Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act..’Truman Capote.
N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb 2011. <http://www.capotebio.com/.>
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"Truman Capote." NNDB tracking the entire world. Soylent Communications, n.d. Web. 27 Feb
2011. <http://www.nndb.com/people/841/000024769/>.
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Liukkonen , Petri . "Truman Capote." Book and Writers . Petri Liukkonen & Ari Pesonen.
Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto, 2008. Web. 27 Feb 2011. <http://kirjasto.sci.fi/capote.htm>.
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KREBS, ALBIN. "Truman Capote Is Dead at 59; Novelist of Style and Clarity." New York Times
(1984): n. pag. Web. 27 Feb 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capoteobit.html>.