Nature Vs Nurture

                                                                                                                 Nelson 1

Maggie Nelson

Ms. Robinson

AP English 3

July 29, 2007

Nature Vs. Nurture

            This age-old question presents itself once again in this nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood. Would Perry have killed if he had not had such a tumultuous childhood? And would Dick still have not killed any of the victims if he had a childhood like Perry’s? My personal belief is that the answer to both of these questions is “yes.” Yes, because everyone starts off from a firm foundation (their genetic code), and then builds off of that throughout their lifetime. Perry had a mental breakdown the night of the murder. He contributed this to his horrendous childhood, yet Capote notes that the psychiatrist who examined him decided he likely had a form of paranoid schizophrenia. This disease, though intensified by early experiences, is brought on mainly by genetics.

            Then there is the case of Dick. He did not kill any of the victims, yet he planned the whole murder, and a few others. Furthermore, after the killings, he showed no remorse for what he had planned and brought about. Yet Dick had a “normal” childhood. So what spurred him on to do something so atrocious? In an interview with The Paris Review, Capote gave his opinion on the subject. He explained that “there wasn’t anything peculiar about Dick’s social position. He was a very ordinary boy who simply couldn’t sustain any kind of normal relationship with anybody. If he had been given $10,000, perhaps he might have settled into some small business. But I don’t think so. He had a very natural criminal instinct towards everything. He was oriented towards stealing from the beginning” (Plimpton). What created Dick’s “orientation”? Not his seemingly standard childhood, but the part of him determined before his birth—the unchanging genetic code. This is the one part of us that will never be altered, the foundation upon which we grow.

Works Cited

Plimpton, George. “The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel.” The New York Times on the Web. 16 January 1966. 29 July 2007.

< http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capote-interview.html>

The Nonfiction Novel and its Significance

                                                                                                                      Nelson 1

Maggie Nelson

Ms. Robinson

AP English 3

July 29, 2007

The Nonfiction Novel and its Significance

The “nonfiction novel”-a genre of writing instigated by Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood- is described by the Encyclopedia Britannica as a “story of actual people and actual events told with the dramatic techniques of a novel” (“Nonfiction Novel”). It goes a step beyond the drabber, more verbatim nonfiction that existed before 1965, and works to capture the reader, to enthrall them in the process of reading, and to bring out the true creativity of the author. This is not only more interesting and captivating for the reader, but likewise it excites the author’s creativity, and allows him or her to bring invigoration to an otherwise mundane subject. Truman Capote explained in an interview that “few first-class creative writers have ever bothered with journalism, except as a sideline, ‘hackwork,’ something to be done when the creative spirit is lacking, or as a means of making money quickly. Such writers say in effect: Why should we trouble with factual writing when we’re able to invent our own stories, contrive our own characters and themes?–journalism is only literary photography, and unbecoming to the serious writer’s artistic dignity” (Plimpton). He felt that though there were many fascinating and relevant occurrences in his time, the factual accounts of them were poorly depicted and mostly ignored by authors, who seemed content to delve into the realms of fiction and never stop to look back. And so Capote brought about a new way of nonfiction, a work in which real events are depicted in an inventive way. He started something of a revolution, and soon other nonfiction novels started to appear. Lillian Moss’s book Picture, for example, was credited by Capote himself to be within his genre. The Executioner’s Song and Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer have been called nonfiction novels, along with Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem.

Works Cited

“Creative Nonfiction.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 30 June 2007. 29 July 2007.  

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_nonfiction>.

“Nonfiction Novel.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. 29 July 2007.                                                    

< http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9056067/nonfiction-novel>.

Plimpton, George. “The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel.” The New York Times on the Web. 16 January 1966. 29 July 2007.

< http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capote-interview.html>

Dramatic Irony Employed Through Montage

Maggie Nelson                                                                                                          Nelson 1

Ms. Robinson

AP English 3

June 17, 2007

Dramatic Irony Employed Through Montage

            It is an ordinary day in Holcomb for Mr. Clutter. He sleeps in, has a small breakfast, and chats with a few pheasant hunters. The book seems to be starting out peacefully, until the last page of this section, when the reader is informed rather abruptly, “he headed for home and the day’s work, unaware that it would be his last” (13). We are jolted back to the idea that this book is not about an ordinary day, but a gruesome murder, a murder, we realize, of this man and his family. The page turns and you face one man, Perry, waiting for another, Dick, in a café. These men are the murderers, you now can tell. The book proceeds. Nancy Clutter quibbles with her brother and chats with her best friend on the phone. She innocently explains how she and her boyfriend held hands the other night, and ponders over the fact that her father might be picking up a smoking habit. Little does she know that the men who are to be her killers are driving to her house at that very second. Nancy and a thirteen-year-old girl finish a wonderful cherry pie, Ms. Clutter retires, and Dick and Perry clean themselves up a little, and enter the car again, “as tidy as two dudes setting off on a double date” (32). Mr. Clutter surprises a woman with the fact that she will be honored at an Achievement Banquet for 4-H Club, and Perry decides to buy a whole roll of rope, enough for twelve, after Dick promises “plenty of hair on them-those walls” (37). The Clutter family is unaware, but the reader knows the ghastly future for them all. We silently plead them to leave, to lock the doors, to keep these men away. But we know they do not hear us, they never had any idea of the upcoming event that would end their lives. This beautifully employed dramatic irony is partly achieved by Capote’s montage in the book, and keeps the readers holding their breaths until the end of the first section, when we finally realize it is over.