For Next Week: Capote, In Cold Blood, Part One (pp.3-74)

READ Part One, "The Last To See Them Alive," which is like one mega-chapter. It's a lot of reading, but it goes quickly and I'll give you plenty of time to respond. I won't give you another section to read until around Thursday or Friday. 

Answer two of the following:

Q1: Truman Capote is reconstructing the events leading up the murder based on interviews and his own intuition. He wasn't literally in the car with the killers to hear their conversation, and he never even met the victims. Do you think it's fair to write a fictional reconstruction of 'real' events like this? Or is it more like the manipulation of photos that we saw in Morris? Did it bother you--or did it help you understand the events?

Q2: For most people in the town, the Clutters were the perfect American family: successful, close-knit, and high-achieving. And while Capote doesn't contradict this portrait, what secrets did the family keep behind the scenes? What makes them less 'perfect' than appearances might show?

Q3: Why was Dick so drawn to Perry? As Capote depicts them, they're very different people, and at times don't even seem to like each other very much. What made them 'fated' to be together, in his eyes?

Q4: Writing about the town of Holcomb, Capote notes, "The inhabitants of the village, numbering two hundred and seventy, were satisfied that this should be so, quite content to exist inside ordinary life--to work, to hunt, to watch television, to attend school socials, choir practice, meetings of the 4-H Club" (5). Based on this, what makes Holcomb worthy of writing about in a book like this? Since most people have never even heard of it, why is a murder in Holcomb a national event? What makes Holcomb uniquely 'American'?