While attention to character development, narrative structure, and relationships are essential elements in most works of literary merit, Capote, even more than other writers, tends to value character over other literary elements.
Study the passage from the “Persons Unknown” section of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, be- ginning, “Mountains. Hawks wheeling in a white sky,” and ending approximately three pages later with, “We sure splattered him.” Then, write a coherent, well-written response in which you analyze how Capote manages to effectively create a complete impression of the character of Perry Smith.
Do not merely describe the character or summarize the passage.
Due date: Friday 8 November.
One technique that capote uses to demonstrate perry is by employing the technique of sympathy.he employs sympathy by saying this, "look at his family!look at what happened there!his mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit.Of her children, two sons and two daughters, only the younger girl,barbara, had entered ordinary life, married, begun raising a family".This is a good example of showing sympathy because it shows how his life was before. capote wants us to feel a bit sorry for him, it also talks about his sisters death and climbing over a window sill and falling fifteen floors. this little passage basically is showing a type of sympathy for perry because of his mom and sisters death.
ReplyDeleteOne technique Capote uses to demonstrate Perry is sympathy. Capote paints Perry in a sympathetic way by using childhood memories to show readers reasons why he is the way he is. “Look at his family! Look at what had happen there! His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit. Of her children, two sons and two daughters, only the younger girl, Barbara, had entered ordinary life, married, begun raising a family. Fern, the other daughter, jumped out of a window of a San Francisco hotel.” [Pg. 110] The narrator talks about Perry’s mom being an alcoholic. By mentioning this it makes the readers feel sympathy towards Perry because Perry believes that his family is not normal and neither is he. For this Capote tries to make the reader believe that maybe this is why Perry has a messed up life and acts the way he does. Another person Perry mentions is his sister Fern. She was a “fantastic” and “artistic” women, but unfortunately she committed suicide. Although Perry wants to believe that she “slipped”, it has been suggested that Capote writes her tragedy this way to try and prove how Perry’s thought about his reasons for being a criminal might be true. He thinks she died because she had no luck and he believed this contributed to his criminal decisions. The third person in his life that made him believe that his childhood and family where the reason for his decision was his older brother. His older brother forced his wife into committing suicide in a day and then the next day committed suicide himself. Capote wrote this passage this way to show that Perry’s family was not normal. Yes one was “normal” but the rest including the mom weren’t. Capote mentions all of this to convince the readers that Perry had a reason for all his decisions to kill. By mentioning all of this he might try to gain sympathy for Perry from the readers.
ReplyDeleteCapote manages to effectively create a whole impression of Perry Smith by using literary techniques. Some techniques that Capote uses to potray Perry's characteristics are metaphors "He could slide into fury quicker than ten drunk indians". By using this technique Capote is able to bring imagery to the reader's mind. Such as what Perry is thinking or feeling and his ruthless , killer behavior . Capote also uses tone and mood . " Be glad to tell you, yes Perry birth was normal , I was able to care for him properly until my wife turned out to be a drunkard". The tone and mood that Capote uses , makes the readers comprehend that Perry had a bad childhood. By using these techniques , Capote paints Perry as a sympathetic man, making the readers feel a little sorry for him. It is because of these techniques that Capote is able to create a whole impression of Perry Smith.
ReplyDeleteTruman Capote’s technique to manage to have a complete impression of Perry Smith is by letting the readers know about Smith’s family. Capote tells the readers of Smith’s family’s life. “Practically if whatever was wrong was not your own fault but “maybe a thing you were born with.” Look at his family! Look at what happened there! “Smith’s mother was an alcoholic; she died by chocking in her own vomit. The other sister, Fern, committed suicide in a hotel at San Francisco. Smith’s younger sister Barbara, had a common life, she got married and had children. Then there was Perry, he had grown up to be a murder. Capote also lets the readers know of an accident he once had with an old of friend of his name King. “But if the man was dead today it was none of Perry’s doing; he never raised a hand against him. “ Smith lived in Vegas; there he lived in an old boarding house. One day Smith and King decided to go for a ride. They both got drunk together, they made a stop and both got of the car. Perry took out a chain he would carry in his car and there he hit King. He didn’t know he had done that but after a while he didn’t feel a thing for what he was doing. He left King there and after that day he never heard of him. Capote let the readers know of Perry’s life before him and Richard killed the Clutter family. Telling the readers of Perry’s old life made the readers know that he had had another ‘experience’ with murderer.
ReplyDeleteCapote manages to effectively create a complete impression of the character of Perry Smith by explaining how bad his life has gone and from where he was coming. He uses words of sympathy and shows that he is softened of the actions he had taken against the Clutter family because of his bad life. In these lines from the book; “Look at his family! Look at what happened there! His mother an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit. Of her children, two sons and two daughters, only the younger girl, Barbara, had entered ordinary life, married, begun raising a family. Fern, the other daughter, jumped out of a window of a San Francisco hotel. And there was Jimmy, the older boy--- Jimmy, who had one day driven his wife to suicide and killed himself next”, shows that Capote feels sorry for him and that he understands why he has done all the bad things throughout his life.
ReplyDeleteLiterary Response #2
ReplyDeleteBy RH: I agree with everybody who wrote their literary responses because Capote does demonstrate in the book that Perry had a terrible family and negative experiences through his life as his family commits suicide and as he kills a black man in Las Vegas, thus showing that Perry realizes that he has committed something wrong. This quote shows this: “When Perry said, ‘I think there must be something wrong with us,’ he was making an admission he ‘hated to make.’ After all, it was ‘painful’ to imagine that one might not be ‘not just right’…” This quote shows that Capote wants us to feel sympathy for the murderers even though they have killed the Clutter’s and have gotten away with it so far. Capote manages to make a complete impression of Perry by portraying him in the texts that he realizes that he has committed something that he was not supposed to make, making the reader or readers feel sympathy for them.
One technique capote uses to demonstrate Perry is sympathy. Capote tries giving reason to why Perry is so screwed up in the head he tries to get the reader to feel sorry or at least understand why perry is so much like that . For example when capote said, "look at his family!look at what happened there!his mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit.Of her children, two sons and two daughters, only the younger girl,barbara, had entered ordinary life, married, begun raising a family" Capote is kind of saying that he doesnt blame him for being how he is because if u look at Perry's past , Capote is trying to make us feel sorry for him . He also then talks about how Perry's sister died and how it was a bad way to die. So by saying how all of Perry's life has been bad it he tries making the reader feel sympathy for Perry.-S.A.D
ReplyDeleteLiterary response #2
ReplyDeleteIn this passage Truman Capote leaves the impression of sincerity towards Perry. He does this by using Perry's "tragic" childhood as a front/excuse of what he has done. For example "-- particularly if whatever was wrong was not your own fault but, maybe a thing you were born with, Look at his family! Look at what happened there! His mother was an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit". You can really feel the sympathy Capote uses towards Perry. I myself am almost convinced to sympathize towards him as well ...i mean really out of her mother's two sons and two daughters only Barbara was able to live a normal life a chance to the american dream. That would set me of to a bad path in life so i'd understand where Perry's coming from but to face reality what he did was still wrong. He also uses a type of analogy between Perry and Dick. He describes dick as more of an aggressive man and Perry a little more reserved and calm about things.
DD:I agree with my fellow classmates that Truman Capote describes Perry is the technique of sympathy. Capote puts Perry on the spot and describes the life that Perry had when he was small. An example from the book would be “Look at his family! Look at what happened there! His mother an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit. Of her children, two sons and two daughters, only the younger girl, Barbara, had entered ordinary life, married, begun raising a family. . Fern, the other daughter, jumped out of a window of a San Francisco hotel.”(Pg. 110). This gives the reader an idea of how Perry’s life was when he was little. The reader can also quote that the behavior and actions of Perry were not technically all his fault because if he would of lived a better life in which his parents cared about him and took more responsibility, he would of not ended up like how he was as he started to get older and possibly he would of not ended up in jail.
ReplyDeleteIn this passage from “Persons Unknown” Truman Capote demonstrates a very sympathetic view of Perry. He uses his mother’s problem with alcohol as an excuse for Perry becoming a criminal. One way that he demonstrates this is by saying “Look at his family! Look at what had happened there. His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit …..”, then he goes on to describing his unstable family, his sister who jumped off a window, and his older brother Jimmy “who had one day driven his wife to suicide and killed himself the next.” The only family member who had entered ordinary life was his sister Barbara who got married and raised a family. By describing his unstable family he makes the reader feel sympathy for Parry.
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ReplyDeletetruman capotethe writer of In cold blood is telling the readers a very important part in this story it starts in page 107-113 this a very impotant phrase of this passage “Look at his family! Look at what happened there! His mother an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit. Of her children, two sons and two daughters, only the younger girl, Barbara, had entered ordinary life, married, begun raising a family. Fern, the other daughter, jumped out of a window of a San Francisco hotel. And there was Jimmy, the older boy--- Jimmy, who had one day driven his wife to suicide and killed himself next” in this readers point of view Capote feels very said for perry because now he knows why perry acts that way and the reason why he is tryinq to compare him self to his sister and the reason why is because his sister is in the middle class and he is in the lower class
ReplyDeleteNovember 13, 2011 3:24 PM