In Cold Blood Should Not Be Banned Essay

Juned Lalani

Ms. Trippe

Dear Truman Capote,

I am a junior in highschool and have just completed your amazing and suspenseful masterpiece, In Cold Blood. The name itself speaks volumes to how thrilling this book was to read. I am writing to you today about the controversial topic of banned books and whether it was justifiable for this book to be banned. This book was one of 737 books to be banned for violence. In Cold Blood should not have been banned because it provides an excellent source of great literature and controversial politics.

According to Huffington Post, one of the biggest reasons books are banned is because it is unsuited for the age group. In Cold Blood is suitable for students because they should be learning about literature

and what makes good plot and character development, which prevails throughout your book. To start off, the beginning really builds up suspense and makes the reader want to stop the inevitable: the murder of the Clutter family. We are able to see the viewpoint of Perry and Dick, the two relentless murderers, and the victims who are soon going to be tied and shot. You also show the killers arrive but do not show the actual murder of the family. Also, this added to the plot because for the entire book, the reader is left questioning how everything truly happened. What also makes this a masterpiece is the progression of characters. The readers learn mostly about Perry and his hardships as a child. As the book goes on, I felt more and more sympathetic towards Perry even though he committed such a heinous crime. “[Dewey] found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger—with, rather, a measure of sympathy—for Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage or another”(Capote 245). This quote shows the progression of Dewey’s character too, who has spent so long and hard catching these guys, only to look at them with sympathy.
The other aspect to why this book should not have been banned are the political innuendos that occur in this book.

First off, you did an amazing job of incorporating the infamous death penalty and the controversy behind it. When Perry and Dick are on trial for the murder of the Clutter family, Perry must write an autobiography for the psychologists that is called in. Him writing about the traumatic parts of his life, including how he was sent to an orphanage although having two alive parents, hints that Perry just might have some type of mental diagnosis. The Kansas' M'Naghten Rule basically is where the court determines if the criminal could not tell right from wrong due to being mentally insane. When the court called for the psychologists to determine if he could not tell right from wrong, he says he does not know, and the court assumes that he is not mentally insane. What is really interesting is how you included what the psychologist would have said, which is that Perry might be a paranoid schizophrenic. The psychologists says that “when [Perry] attacked Mr. Clutter he was under a mental eclipse, deep inside a schizophrenic darkness”(Capote 302).This cleverly shows what is wrong with the M’Naghten Rule and why it is not fair. Also, it leaves readers in controversy as to whether or not Perry was actually mentally insane throughout the book because the psychologists was very unsure. This is another reason why the book should not have been banned. In Cold Blood gave readers a chance to formulate an opinion on a situation like this one and keeps the students thinking. Although “opponents say teens are already overexposed to violence via video games, television and movie”(O’Neil), free thinking in this book overcomes the whole obstacle of

violence.
All in all, In Cold Blood should not have been banned because it gives students a chance to read amazing literature and formulate opinions on political controversy. Students can think more freely and the positives overcome the negatives of reading the book. In Cold is 53rd rank on Library Assn. list of classic books, so what sense does it make to be banned? Thank you for reading my letter and I hope you agree with me.

From,
Juned