Truman vs. Capote

Allie Grinkevich
Mrs. White
English CP-A
10 February 2012
Truman vs. Capote

Throughout the course of Truman Capote’s research on the Clutter family murders’, he became very emotionally attached to the murderers, especially Perry Smith. While this is difficult to see through the very formal and veiled perspective of his book, In Cold Blood, the movie based on Truman’s writing, Capote shows a much different perspective and shows just how connected he truly was to the murders and to Perry.
While writing In Cold Blood Truman purposely kept a very formal and withdrawn third person point of view. He did this because he intended the book to be a non-fiction novel, based on facts, not his own first person point of view and opinion. Therefore In Cold Blood states what occurred, without showing his emotional involvement or influence on the case. That isn’t to say that his lack of commentary made his book unbiased or without opinion though. As the writer he still had the power to purposefully include the facts that he felt most important and supporting to his view. For example near the end of the book he chooses to include a snippet from a radio broadcast saying, “The rich never hang. Only the poor and friendless” (Capote 257). While there were probably hundreds of other things said on the radio that day, yet he chooses to include this one because it supports his opinion of Perry’s death sentence. Truman’s emotional influence is also shown in the format of the book, mainly with the way that he focuses the majority of the book on Perry. While the murder of the Clutter family is the main plot, all of the underlying themes and content relate to Perry. From the description of Perry’s childhood with “Tex and Flo” to his anger towards Dick when he learned he might try to take advantage of Nancy, all of the conflicts and character portrayal of the story is based on Perry. Truman would also constantly include small details about Perry’s life and personality, which have no relation to the actual murder, yet he felt would create stronger connection for the reader, “I could play a harmonica first time I picked one up. Guitar, too. I had this great musical ability…I liked to read, too. Improve my vocabulary. Make up songs.” (Capote 133). He includes these details because he felt sympathetic towards Perry, and wanted the audience to feel that way towards him too.
While Truman’s usage of third person point of view in his novel may give a somewhat more accurate and truthful idea of what happened the night of the murder, it neglects to incorporate Truman’s own experiences. Throughout the entire book the only real mention of Truman (with the exception of on the front cover of course) is when it is momentarily mentioned that Perry had spoken with a reporter, meaning Truman Capote. Unlike this, the film Capote shows the relationship between Truman and Perry, and how connected they became over the years. Like Perry, Truman had experienced a lonely childhood, and therefore they could relate to and understand each other. During the film Capote, Truman is quoted saying to his friend Harper Lee, “It's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house. And one day he stood up and went out the back door, while I went out the front.” This statement shows how connected he felt to Perry, and how while he believed they went through roughly the same experiences, Truman ended up a writer and Perry ended up in jail. Because of this Truman feels obligated to try to save Perry from execution, yet at the same time he can’t successfully sell his book or finish the story until Perry is dead.
This conflict between what Truman believes is right and what he needs to do take a huge toll on both his physical and mental state. In an article by Stetson Thacker, Truman Capote is quoted saying, “No one will ever know what In Cold Blood took out of me. It scraped me right down to the marrow of my bones. It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did kill me.” Truman’s personal struggles are never mentioned within In Cold Blood, yet this conflict as well as his connection to Perry is very well demonstrated within the film Capote, and can help the viewer to experience exactly what Truman Capote went through while making his book.



Works Cited
Capote. Dir. Bennett Miller. United Artists and Sony Pictures, 2005.
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder And Its Consequences. New York: Random House, 1966. Print.
Rocha, Guy Louis. "Truman Capote's In Cold Blood." State Library and Archives. A Division of the Department of Administration. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. .
Thacker, Stetson. "Truman Capote's Purposes for Writing ICB." Freelance Writing. Suite101, 7 July 2011. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. .

Holden as Universal Teen

In the book The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Holden in many ways represents the average teenager. This can be seen several times throughout the book especially when he is trying to figure out who he really is and also dealing with issues because of his age.

During one scene in the beginning of the book Holden is walking around with a snowball in his hand and goes to board a bus and is forced to throw it out by an adult. ”The bus driver opened the doors and made me throw it out. I told him I wasn’t going to chuck it at anybody, but he wouldn’t believe me. People never believe you. (Salinger 37) This may sound like a small scene, but it shows how Holden feels about being required to do things because of his age. It also shows that he feels that no one ever thinks he is telling the truth, which is something that many teenagers have to deal with because of their age.

Also like many teenagers, Holden feels that most adults don’t take him seriously. During one scene he is in a taxi and he begins to ask the cab driver if he knows where the ducks go during the winter. Instead of actually thinking about it the driver says, “How the hell should I know a stupid thing like that?” (82) Then the driver begins to insist that the ducks are the same as the fish and simply stay there and that all of Holden’s thoughts about it are wrong. This is the same way a lot of adults assume that just because teenagers are younger that they are less intelligent, or don’t understand things even though that is untrue.

Why Kesey Didn't Like The Film

I believe that the reason why Ken Kesey didn’t like the film based off of his novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is because of some choices that the film director made for the film.
One reason why I believe that Ken Kesey wouldn’t have liked the film is because the entire movie concentrated on the character of MacMurphy. Because of this Chief is not the films main focus, even though he was a very important part of the book. In the film MacMurphy did continue to show the men that they could rebel against the strict confines that Mrs. Ratched had them under; always saying things to provoke them like, “Which one of you nuts has got any guts?” (Foreman) but the film missed out on the perspective of the main character, Chief.
In Kesey’s book, everything is seen through the eyes of Chief. But in the film it is seen from third person point of view. Because of this the film misses out on some of the most important parts of the book, including the extended metaphor of fog and machines that Kesey uses throughout the book. For example, in one scene Chief doesn’t take his medicine and wakes up in the middle of the night hallucinating. “...But there’s no blood or innards falling out like I was looking to see- just a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece or wire or glass.” (Kesey 81). Personally I believe that the entire purpose of the book was to show you inside of Chief’s mind, including the way he thinks and how he sees things that happen around him.
When the film was made the directors “offered Kesey $10,000 to do the screenplay. Kesey wrote it—as he had the book—from the viewpoint of the schizophrenic Indian chief Bromden. The moviemakers wanted to tell the story, however, through another inmate, Randle McMurphy. Kesey returned to the typewriter but says he was not paid for subsequent rewrites.” (Riley)


Outside Source: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20066279,00.html

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Battles

In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, there are several conflicts, but the main one is between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy.

Nurse Ratched is in charge of the mental hospital and makes it her business to know everything that is going on around the ward so that she can stay in control of it all. She has the upper hand in this battle because she has power over the patents of the ward. She gains this power through things such as the therapy meeting where she purposefully draws out the faults in the patents around her to show her domination over them. During one scene she manipulates the other patents into harassing Harding. The narrator, Chief Bromden, describes it as, “For forty-five minutes they had been chopping a man to pieces, almost as if they enjoyed it, shooting questions at him…questions and insinuations till now they feel bad about it and they don’t want to be made more uncomfortable by being near him.”(Kesey 54).

Nurse Ratched also has the ability to send the patents to the disturbed ward. This is a disadvantage to McMurphy because he has to try to bring her down without displaying any behavior that she could use against him; such as cursing, fighting with the other patents or making a big deal out of anything. Because of this he has to be very careful with the way he acts around her and has to try to unnerve and pester her without showing any questionable behavior. During one scene he and the other patents manage to completely aggravate and upset her. To protest being un-allowed to watch the Super-bowl, they purposely leave their work and sit in front of the blank TV screen. “And we’re all sitting there lined up in front of the blanked-out TV set, watching the gray screen just like we could see the baseball game clear as day, and she’s ranting and screaming behind us.” (Kesey 128). This drives Nurse Ratched crazy because she hates not being in control, but as Chief Bromden comments, “She’s lost this battle here today, but it’s a minor battle in a big war that she’s been winning and that she’ll go on winning.” (Kesey 101).