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Gender roles of women in literature
Gender roles of women in literature
Gender roles of women in literature
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On pages 307 to 308 of Truman Capote 's novel In Cold Blood, Mrs. Meier is conversing with a friend right after Dick and Perry are guilty of the murder. Mrs. Meier was discussing her relationship with Perry and after the verdict she isolates herself from having to see him. However, Perry becomes “embraced by [his] shame” (308) and cries in front of her, and Mrs. Meier helps comfort him. Perry becomes vulnerable, and she holds his hand like a mother trying to console her child. After Mrs. Meier forces herself to leave Perry alone, she felt heartbroken since no one was there to comfort him. The next day Perry feels standoffish as if he never broke down the day before, and the guards take him to the penitentiary. Right before Perry left, he thanks …show more content…
Meier’s maternalism towards Perry shows compassion throughout the passage. She treats Perry as her child caring for him and comforting him when he cries, by her holding his hand, and saying she will “make him Spanish rice”(308). That helps Perry open up to Mrs. Meier about his feelings and lets him be himself without judgement from anyone else, just like a mother would not judge her child. In Mrs. Meier’s circumstances it’s most likely she had kids; however, they must be older and do not need that mother-child relationship so she fills that relationship with Perry. This comforts Perry since he never had a mother figure throughout his childhood, so when he receives compassion Perry becomes vulnerable and in return acts like Mrs. Meier’s child. She encourages him to be himself and express how he feels about his actions without anyone judging …show more content…
It starts off with regular sentence structure describing the trial and her relationship with Perry; “how Perry and [Mrs. Meier] got to know each other real well”(308). Leading up to Perry 's breakdown, it transitions to choppy fragmented sentences describing every detail, when she did not want “to hear him. But [she] could. Crying like a child.”(308) creating a contrasted syntax in the passage. Capote tried to dramatize this breakdown by going from long, detailed to fragmented sentences, increasing the reader’s sympathy for Perry; since it describes him crying in his cell and reaching out his hand for Mrs. Meier to comfort him. When Perry becomes vulnerable towards Mrs. Meier, it humanized him creating more of a sympathetic character that is more understandable and relatable to a certain extent. It creates a softer side to Perry showing that he isn’t a heartless killer, Perry is a convict with a traumatic childhood that shapes his
Capote tells the story in a way that makes you feel you are being told about the characters by a close acquaintance of each individual character. When you aren't hearing the voices of the characters as they tell their own stories, we hear, not the voice of an author, but the voice of a friend who knew the characters well. (Before saying her prayers, she always recorded in a diary a few occurrences... Perry didn't care what he drank... etc.)
While reading the descriptions of people within "In Cold Blood," one could see how those people fall into their respective conventional gender norms and stereotypes. Some examples of these stereotypes include the physical characterizations of the people, as well as some of the interests that those people have. For example, Bonnie is described as a "timid, pious, delicate girl" (Capote 6). With these descriptions, Bonnie falls into the conventional female stereotype of being submissive and weak. Also, when Nancy and Kenyon are introduced, their interests fall into the stereotypes for their respective genders. Nancy cooks all of the family meals and loves to bake, while Kenyon likes to create new inventions and go hunting with his friends. Based
As In Cold Blood progresses, Capote slowly seems to discover the truth behind the murders and realize who Perry truly is. At first, Capote is debating whether or not Perry is the cold blooded killer everyone makes him out to be, or if his life choices were simply a product of his upbringing. Various quotes from Perry’s account of the killings show him both questioning himself and wanting to find a weapon. Capote’s description of Perry (for example, “He rubs his legs; the handcuffs rattle”) shows how nervous Perry is, and makes it seem as though he is having a hard
During his childhood, Perry experienced and was marked by brutality and lack of concern on the part of both parents (Capote 296). Dr. Jones gives a very detailed description of Perry's behavior. He says that Perry, who grew up without love, direction, or m...
Capote's structure in In Cold Blood is a subject that deserves discussion. The book is told from two alternating perspectives, that of the Clutter family who are the victims, and that of the two murderers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The different perspectives allow the reader to relive both sides of the story; Capote presents them without bias. Capote masterfully utilizes the third person omniscient point of view to express the two perspectives. The non-chronological sequencing of some events emphasizes key scenes.
Truman Capote finds different ways to humanize the killers throughout his novel In Cold Blood. He begins this novel by explaining the town of Holcomb and the Clutter family. He makes them an honest, loving, wholesome family that play a central role in the town. They play a prominent role in everyone’s lives to create better well-being and opportunity. Capote ends his beginning explanation of the plot by saying, “The suffering. The horror. They were dead. A whole family. Gentle, kindly people, people I knew --- murdered. You had to believe it, because it was really true” (Capote 66). Despite their kindness to the town, someone had the mental drive to murder them. Only a monster could do such a thing --- a mindless beast. However,
Perry Smith did not live the happy childhood that he deserved, abandoned by his family at a young age he was forced to live at a terrible orphanage. “The one where Black Widows were always at me. Hitting me. Because of wetting the bed...They hated me, too.” (Capote 132). In this specific orphanage, Perry was beaten by the nuns that own the place. The short sentences within this quote truly emphasize the dramatic and horrible conditions that Perry had to live with in the orphanage. Sympathy is created ...
In Cold Blood is a true account of a multiple murder case that took place in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959, written by Truman Capote. Capote’s attention to detail causes the reader to gain an extreme interest in the Clutter family even though they were an ordinary family. The suspense that is a result of minimal facts and descriptive settings was an elaborate stylistic technique that gave effective results throughout the book. His ability to make this account of a horrid crime more than just a newspaper description was a great success as a base of his many literary devices, not just is great focus to small details.
In the book “In Cold Blood” we meet Perry Edward Smith one of the men accused of killing the Clutter family. Perry is a unique man for how he see the world and how the world sees him. Although the townspeople and those who had heard of the murder only saw Parry as a murder. There is however one man who sees Perry more than he appeared to be and that man was Truman Capote. Perry had an interesting life from how he was raised, becoming friends with Richard Eugene Hickock, to the murder of the Clutter family, all the way to Capote writing about him and the trail he and Dick must face. It was Capote who brought the idea that Perry was not a bad person persa but rather he made a mistake that has caused him to spend the rest of his life behind the bars of a jail.
Through the course of the book, Capote uses vivid descriptions to his advantage in order to place emphasis on more noteworthy parts of the story. Capote’s choice of imagery characterizes Perry as a person and gives an idea to who he is. Perry’s life prior to crime was normal for awhile, until his family situation crumbled: “in the ring, a lean Cherokee girl rode a wild horse, a ‘bucking bronc,’ and her loosened hair whipped back and forth, flew about like a flamenco dancer’s. Her name was Flo Buckskin, and she was a professional rodeo performer, a ‘champion bronc-rider.’ So was her husband, Tex John Smith; it was while touring the Western rodeo circuit that the handsome Indian girl and the homely-handsome Irish cowboy had met, married, and had the four children sitting in the grandstand. (And Perry could remember many another rodeo spectacle--see again his father skipping inside a circle of spinning lassos, or his mother, with silver and turquoise bangles jangling on her wrists, trick-riding at a desperado speed that thrilled her youngest child and caused crowds in towns from Texas to Oregon to ‘stand up and clap.’)” Perry’s troubles after his parents separation may very well have contributed to his becoming a murderer later on down the road. The abrupt change in his life at such a young age, clearly had a lasting impact on him and his lifestyle. His past altered the way he thought and the type of person he was. Capote quotes,
In this day and age the term “murder” is coined as a word used in everyday language, albeit fifty years ago in the [rural] heartland of America, that word evoked emotion out of the entire town’s population. Prior to writing In Cold Blood, Truman Capote had written several pieces that lead him to writing a piece of literature that would infuse fiction and nonfiction, thus In Cold Blood was created, albeit after six years of research (“Truman” 84). "Truman Capote is one of the more fascinating figures on the American literary landscape, being one of the country's few writers to cross the border between celebrity and literary acclaim…He contributed both to fiction and nonfiction literary genres and redefined what it meant to join the otherwise separate realms of reporting and literature." ___ In Cold Blood takes place in the rural heartland in America, capturing the lives of the Clutter family in the days preceding their murder. The story shifts to the murderers, Dick Hickock, Perry Smith, and the lives of the men prior to the events that ultimately unfold in the murder of the Clutters, although the actual events of the murder are not revealed until later in the story through Perry’s flashbacks. At this point of the story the narration switches between the fugitives and the investigation lead by Detective Alvin Dewey of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood delineates justice in order to depict the disruption of an all-American society.
He is the character that most sympathized with because of his past. He never had a connection with his alcoholic mother and siblings. His parents never gave him the love, direction, and the moral values that children need from their parents. This contributed to his behavior. While Perry was testifying, Dr. Jones characterized him with severe mental illness. He mentions that Perry has “paranoid orientation toward the world,” (Capote 297). He goes into further detail by mentioning that Perry “is suspicious and distrustful towards others, tends to feel that others discriminate against him, and feels that others are unfair to him and do not understand him,” (Capote 297). It is completely understandable why Perry would think like this. He was treated horrendously by the nuns in the orphanage and when he lived with his family. Since Perry never had anything good happen to him growing up, he feels like he has to take out his frustration on people who are good. Vengeance for what he did not receive. While in court, Perry mentions why he killed the Clutter family, “It wasn’t because of anything the Clutters did. They never hurt me. Like other people. Like people all my life. Maybe it’s just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it,” (Capote 290). Dr. Jones diagnosis Perry as a paranoid
Richard Mulcaster, a British instructor of English, once wrote, “Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward.” Mulcaster recognizes that both genetic and environmental factors determine the type of a person one becomes. Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood gives the reader an opportunity to see prime examples of how nature and nurture influence one’s character. Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood introduces the reader to two men; Richard Eugene Hickock known as Dick throughout the novel, and Perry Edward Smith whose lives of crime are almost identical; although both Perry and Richard come from very humble backgrounds, their childhood particularly their family life, has very little in common. It is not until later in their lives that we begin to see similarities between the two men. Despite their differences, Perry’s upbringing and Dick’s genetic disposition allow both men to share a disregard for life, which becomes apparent on the night they gruesomely burglarized and murdered four innocent members of the Clutter family.
...ionship with Smith during his time on Death Row, making his unbiased writing biased. By the time Smith and Hickock are hanged Smith is portrayed in the role of misunderstood good guy in the good-guy/bad-guy literary device. Capote was not apposed the death penalty, he used the double handing as the dramatic ending to In Cold Blood. Thought out the third section of In Cold Blood whenever Hickock is contemplating or in gagging in a sexual act Smith reacts in an angry or jealous way. Capote repeatedly interprets Smith’s actions towards Hickock as showing his morality, where Hickock is voiced has having none. Capote voices that Smith prevents the rape of Nancy Clutter on Moral grounds. Capote shows this again in the scene in which Hickock has a prosttsuite in the room during their time in Mexico.
In Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, the Clutter family’s murderers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, are exposed like never before. The novel allows the reader to experience an intimate understanding of the murderer’s pasts, thoughts, and feelings. It goes into great detail of Smith and Hickock’s pasts which helps to explain the path of life they were walking leading up to the murder’s, as well as the thought’s that were running through their minds after the killings.