Thursday, November 5, 2009

Around 10 pages into the second volume of the novel, Capote continues his trend of making the story generic in certain places in order to allow one’s mind to possibly make the murders involve the reader. Capote starts with something we didn’t know about Herb Clutter the face that he didn’t always have money. His friend recalls seeing him evolve from a poorly paid country worker to a well-known farm rancher. This ‘rags to riches’ story is a classic American dream; it is what draws people to America. A hackneyed story like this generalizes the Clutter family and makes them become any family you know that improved their own lives. Capote moves on, describing the crime scene in painstaking detail. He mentions the tape and rope to be, “common-brand products, obtainable anywhere in the United States” (83). A statement like that, as simple and obvious as it is, adds the simplification of the story. It shows how this is not an exotic crime, how, if you wanted, you could walk next door and tie up your neighbors with everyday household items. The description of the crime scene continues in Nancy’s room. A look around it discovers, “the unsensational confidings of an intelligent girl” (84). Adjectives added can either create a unique room for Nancy or a generic ‘unsensational’ one. That word makes the story; it could be your sister’s room or your friends. A room that could be any girl’s room creates an illusion that it could be any girl being murdered. As the investigation continues, Harold Nye concludes, “Of all the people in all the world, the Clutters were the least likely to be murdered” (85). This is the statement that epitomizes Capote’s intent for the book. Everyone in the world thinks that they will never be murdered, things like that happen to other people. However, as all of Capote’s statements add up, the reader questions this sort of thinking. Fear is instilled in the reader as each detail can be likened to their lives and suddenly the likelihood of being murdered or even murdering someone becomes all too possible.

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