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Cultural Analysis of Truman Capote in Cold Blood
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Cultural Analysis of Truman Capote in Cold Blood
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Is it justifiable to inflict the death penalty on individuals who have committed murder? As majority would have it, yes. There are many arguments in favor of capital punishment. Some of these include taking a murderer out of this world once and for all, and saving money that would be spent on them if they were given a life sentence, as well as the majority rule of citizens of the United States wishing it to stay. In Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, Dick and Perry were assigned the death penalty for the cruel murders of four members of the Clutter family in a small town in Kansas. Not only did this pair of men deserve what they got, but it is also better for the state that they were executed. Capital punishment has been one …show more content…
(Capote 317) People simply wanted justice, and justice entailed not wanting murders to continue living, especially when the crime committed was of such hostility as the one that Dick and Perry committed in In Cold Blood. Even those who stood against the killing of anyone had to concede to the disposal of these despicable human beings. One of the jurors even went as far as saying so in court to prove his …show more content…
The total cost for his living there would come out to around $246,900 for the duration of his stay. Now, had he been forced to live with the general population, sentenced to life without parole, he would cost the state $24,690 yearly, as stated before (“Cost of the Death Penalty”). Perry wasn’t in the best health, but he was pretty young when he was sentenced. Assuming he lived for 35 years after his sentencing, that comes to a total of $864,150 through Perry’s lifetime. That’s practically four times the amount than his life on death row. Yearly, it appears that putting prisoners on death row would cost a hefty amount more, but if the simple math is performed, it’s clear that the state could be saving a little over 600,000 dollars per prisoner sentenced to death
The other part of In Cold blood’s death penalty is. “I will request the jury, upon finding them guilty, to sentence them to the death penalty.” (257) They’re saying in the quote that
In the novel, the innocent Clutter family is murdered in their own home one night, but the details of the case are not disclosed at first. The reader, however, is aware that Dick Hickock and Perry Smith embark on a nationwide road trip after committing the brutal crime. The childhoods of both characters are brought up in great detail, but the reader is especially meant to sympathize with Perry who grew up with much adversary in his life like a physical handicap, divorced parents from different states, and suicidal siblings. Because Perry did not receive much good behavioral leadership, tried to convince Dick not to follow through with the homicides, and likely had a mental illness that inhibited rational thinking, the audience was outraged when Perry Smith was sent to death row and eventually killed. In Cold Blood argues that committing a capital crime did not erase the good person that Perry was, but that he simply trusted the wrong people and made poor decisions that should not be punished by
Murder is a very sensitive and important part of America’s past, present, and future. There are many murders that can take place everywhere, and they can happen at any time. In 1959, Herb Clutter’s farm family was murdered by two ex-prisoners that were ruthless. The book In Cold Blood, written by Truman Capote, shows his views of the crime committed by Perry Smith and Richard “Dick” Hickock. Capote states the facts of the case, but in an attempt to make readers feel sympathy for the killers, he changes some information to make others believe they were innocent.
Throughout the Non-fiction novel In Cold Blood Truman Capote convinces the reader the idea of death penalty as a punishment, seeing it as hypocritical. This is achieved through Capote’s ability to succeed to the reader’s credibility and emotions.
that society has a moral obligation to protect the safety and the welfare of its
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
Perry deserves to be hanged but Dick does not. Although Dick didn’t kill anyone there, he helped and planned going to the Clutter home. Therefore Dick does deserve to be punished, but the death penalty was extreme for his crimes. Perry does the death penalty unlike Dick. He openly confessed to killing the family and showed no remorse for the family.
Main Point 1: Imagine someone that has been accused of murder and sentenced to death row has to spend almost 17-20 years in jail and then one day get kill. Then later on the person that they killed was not the right person.
Violence in a community consequentially causes a community to unite and encourages its people to display good morals. Truman Capote displays the importance of virtues and morals throughout In Cold Blood. As a deadly murder unfolds Capote utilizes the real life scenario to show how the background of two killers and the reactions of townspeople play a role in this case. The redemptive community and family affiliated exemplifies the importance of proper morals while the perpetrators of the crime create examples of unethical decisions. Although people object to poor morals displayed in the nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, the use of this book in schools is appropriate in grades eleven and twelve because it discredits the bad morals that are portrayed.
I believe that capital punishment is a justifiable means of punishment for the most heinous crimes. In addition, the means of execution should not matter if the basic principle behind this form of justice can be justified by the specific crime. This is why my opinion is that any form of capital punishment in effect in the United States today is warranted and fair.
According to Casey Carmical, capital punishment is a justifiable penalty to deciding to end the life of another human being. In fact, she goes on to argue that should one choose not to execute on the grounds of murder, we the people would be committing a moral injustice to the deceased. Capital punishment should essentially be viewed as lawfully ending the life of a human being as the result of a their decision to commit a heinous crime that fatally injured another person; however murder, as defined by Carmical is, “the unlawful and malicious or premeditated killing of one human being by another.” The death penalty is clearly defined within its name alone, a penalty given by a court of law as the result of a malicious crime. The murderer is not sentenced to death without cause; they are suffering the consequences of their crime. The death of the accused is completed by government
Lastly, personally I feel as though if those people made the decision to end a person’s life, or severely alter their lives then they don’t deserve the option to keep living, even if it is in prison. Ultimately it sounds completely hateful to take another person’s life by lethal injection, but maybe if the state of Nebraska were to bring back the death penalty then more states would decide to do the same thing, and this could cut down on our crime rates. So once again my answer is, Yes, to the death penalty for the highest form of punishment. If the criminal can’t accept the punishment for the crime committed, then the person should have thought about that before they went and committed a crime. I don’t disagree with the people who say the death penalty is wrong, considering that is their opinions but as a person who has had two of my close friends killed this subject is very personal to me, therefore I would not feel right if I did not support the death
Death penalty saves murderer from living a life of guilt. In In Cold Blood, Hickock right before his execution said, "I just want to say I hold no hard feelings. You people are sending me to a better world than this ever was" (pg 339). This highlights that Hickock accepted the death penalty because it allows him to get away from the real punishment of guilt. In the execution of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock the trail was not fair. In the past, there had been many trails where innocent was executed due to lack of money to hire a qualified lawyer, or justice system discriminated against
Capital punishment, or more commonly known as the death penalty continues to be a controversial topic in the United States. The United States is one of the few industrialized countries left in the world that still uses the death penalty, needs to change its practice. Abolition of the death penalty in the United States should be the next course of action of the United States justice system because it is economically inefficient, and racially discriminates.
Michael Sanders, a Professor at Harvard University, gave a lecture titled “Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? The Moral Side of Murder” to nearly a thousand student’s in attendance. The lecture touched on two contrasting philosophies of morality. The first philosophy of morality discussed in the lecture is called Consequentialism. This is the view that "the consequences of one 's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.” (Consequentialism) This type of moral thinking became known as utilitarianism and was formulated by Jeremy Bentham who basically argues that the most moral thing to do is to bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people possible.