Thematic analysis
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The Destruction of the American Dream
While Capote attempts to tell the true story of the murder of the Clutters in a realistic light and mostly focusing on the story itself, he also gives hints at the deterioration of the American Dream through the loss of innocence of the family and town. The typical, loved family of the Clutters is depicted as all-american, and the town they live in, Holcomb is peaceful where everyone knows everyone. The perfect town where anyone would want to live, a rarity. When the family is murdered, however, it rattles the citizens to their core. For the first time anyone can remember there is a threat, and it very well could be their own neighbor. The happy bubble they were all so content to reside in has been popped, and so they have to deal with the "unique experience of distrusting each other" (Capote 88) and so the ideal town to house the pinnacle of the expected american dream has had that proud flag violently ripped away from them. Capote's emphasis on the shock and disgust the residence of the town now harbor focuses the sharp turn of the changed perspective former friends once had. This is intentionally Deterioration of traditional family values The ideal American family is portrayed in the Clutter family, and in so, they represent upstanding values. The people are fulfilled and happy with a bright future. One of their murderers however, is the exact opposite. Perry grew up in a dysfunctional family without everything the Clutters represent. His criminal background, and all of his possible mental problems, Capote connects to the lack of familial comfort and contentment. When Perry, the pinnacle of dysfunctionality, cuts away the traditional family values the Clutters embody, he diminishes the very idea of a traditional family while simultaneously gives one solid hurrah for the broken home he formed from, obviously not a triumphant hurrah however, more of a ruthless sense of revenge for the life he never had. The idea Capote seems to be trying to accentuate in this, is that growing up with family values encourages a person with family values, when a broken family produces a broken outcome. There are exceptions to this, while Capote doesn't exactly focus on it, it is important to note that Dick had a relatively normal family which doesn't account for his criminal background. Reliability of Author In order for Truman Capote to write his book In Cold Blood, he went to the town of Holcomb and interviewed everyone about the murder case. He also personally got to converse with Richard Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The book itself is all based on facts, interviews, and details that Capote picked up during his research time. To be able to have a novel that is made up of just facts and observation, Capote plays around with scene chronology and character dialogue to keep it interesting. The book moves back and froth from the perspectives of the Holcomb townspeople, which the Clutter family was apart of, and to Dick and Perry’s point of view. Having these two opposing viewpoints allows the reader to be the judge of the outcomes of the Clutter case. Instead of inputting his own ideas and opinions, Capote using the omniscient point of view allows no distractions upon their own thoughts. The use of the third person omniscient narrator allows no opinion to be shown through. Capote says that he takes pride in the fact that he remains unbiased, but there are hints of his preference to Perry over Dick. Capote has a clear bias to Perry over Dick, as he seems to sympathize more with Perry and his backstory. An example of this bias is when he pities Perry’s childhood in which he “seems to have grown up without direction, without love, and without ever having absorbed and fixed sense of moral values…” (Capote 297). Compared to Perry’s hard life, Dick is described to have a normal family with loving parents. Their differences in past and childhood makes Capote more biased towards Perry because he feels more sympathetic towards him. Another example is when he displays Perry as the nice guy while he portrays Dick as the evil one. This takes place in Dick and Perry’s journey when they pick up a duo of a little boy and an old man. Seeing that the old man is very tired, Dick suggest they should kick them out incase something happens with them. However, Perry says to Dick, “‘Go ahead. Put them out. But I’ll be getting out, too’” (209). This makes Dick to like the evil guy because he is kicking out a poor man and a boy. However, his action is understandable because they were on the run and wouldn't want any trouble. Compared to Dick’s actions, Perry looks like an angel because he is saving the poor duo from their misery. This is a clear bias towards Perry because this little scenario had nothing to do with the Clutter case. It was included by Capote to make the reader feel more biased towards Perry. Capote is a reliable author in a sense that he does not put his opinion about the case and outcome of it. He utilizes alternating viewpoints to make sure the reader can see the story from different point of views, and has a third person omniscient narrator that does not put in personal opinion. This allows the reader to be able to from the own opinions and decide on whether the outcome of the case is justified. However, he is unreliable in the sense of character because he is biased towards Perry over Dick. Some parts of the book are included to make the reader like Perry more than Dick. Overall, Capote can be seen as more of a reliable author as he manages to let the reader form most of the opinions about the case and its outcome on their own. |