Paper #4 assignment (and no class on Wednesday!)

 Remember that I had to cancel class on Wednesday, though I will be in my office working if you need me for any reason. The questions for Friday are in the post below this one. Try to finish Chapter 3, "Answer" by then, and we'll do some in-class writing in preparation. Also, Paper #4 is posted below, which I gave out in class yesterday:

English 1213

Paper #4: The Conversation of Crime

“It wasn’t because of anything the Clutter did. They never hurt me. Like other people. Like people have all my life. Maybe it’s just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it” (290).

INTRO: Some have accused In Cold Blood for glorifying monsters, for giving too much space for Perry and Dick to tell their stories. And what do we learn from these stories? That they feel that the world wronged them, and (as in the quote above) that someone had to pay for it? Should it matter why people kill, or just that they do kill? Why should the criminals be as important (or even more important) than the victims? And yet, isn’t that true of so many stories today: don’t we know the killers’ names much more than those they killed? Don’t we make movies about the monsters, and not the innocent? Did In Cold Blood start a trend that has replaced ethics with entertainment? Should we pay money to learn about the secret lives of people like Perry and Dick?

PROMPT: For your last paper, I want you to discuss the ethics of reading and writing about criminals. What should we be learning from their stories, if anything? Why did Capote devote so much of his story to Dick and Perry? What did he want us to see and experience? Is this useful? Is it ethical? Or does it distract from the single-minded pursuit of justice for unlawful acts? Respond to Capote’s story and either defend or refute his approach to writing about crime and criminals.

ALSO: Bring in another famous or somewhat famous crime where the criminals have gained notoriety because of what we wrote or said about them. Why is this? What was the fascination with their crimes? What did we learn about them? How does it compare with In Cold Blood? Does hearing the criminals in their own words really help us determine justice? Do we need to learn the context of murder? Does it really change anything: either what happened or how we feel about it? How much should we know?

REQUIREMENTS: no page limit, but make a convincing conversation with your ideas + Capote’s + 2-3 sources about another crime/criminal. You must QUOTE and cite according to MLA Format.

DUE: Friday, April 29^th by 5pm