Formal #1: Strange Connections

Through our discussions, we’ve surmised that the New Journalism took fact-reporting, blended it with some human emotion, and provided society with a form of non-fiction that invokes a response from the reader. There are probably as many different responses as there are personalities and values reading the story. There are some facts, however, that stand out when looking at the individual relationships that are formed in the book. You have the duo of Perry and Dick as murderers. You have Alvin Dewey and his team of KBI investigators, as well as his wife, Marie’s, responses to the murders. You have the townspeople and their speculations and resultant actions. Capote chose to elaborate more on certain individuals than others, which is not surprising; every novel, no matter the style, needs main characters to follow. Perry was the murderer he draws the reader closer to.

It is evident throughout the novel that Capote has a closer relationship to Perry than he does to Dick. The extensive background/childhood information that the reader is given regarding Perry (scattered throughout the novel, but primarily seen from pages 123 through 147) imply that Capote had a “special interest” in Perry, some sort of “connection,” or perhaps a combination of both. The reader is given details about Perry’s childhood through letters from this sister and testimony of his father that make the reader feel at times that Capote is trying to get the reader to sympathize with Perry, feel sorry for this lost boy who was never loved, who lost his abused mother, and had a heartless father.

It is Perry’s confession that we read, not Dick’s. We are simply told that they corroborate. The reader sees the murder occur, towards the end of the book, through Perry’s mind's eye. We are told that he “didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound. Like somebody drowning. Screaming under water. I handed the knife to Dick” (244). In the movie, In Cold Blood, Perry, played by Robert Blake, is shown in the murder scene as having flashbacks to happy times shared with his mother and his father’s abuse of him and his mother, in the presence of Perry and his siblings. It is during these flashbacks that Perry cuts Mr. Clutter’s throat. At this point in the book, I think Capote had done all he could to evoke compassion for Perry. All that was left were the details of the murder and subsequent sentencing. The emotions of the reader, as well as Alvin Dewey, are raw and exhausted.

We know that Capote initiated this New Journalism, this form of Creative Nonfiction that combined facts and fiction that was knew to this audience at this time, 1965. At this time in history, while personal feelings were not knew, the social discussion of them was, to some degree. I’d be willing to bet that tying a murderer to human emotions was rare. I personally want to know exactly what it was that drew Capote to Perry. What was it that he felt connected them? I understand that New Journalism, written in a fictional context, cannot elaborate these minute details. And this served Capote well. The suspense, the creepy inside-out look at this hideous murder drew the readers in. And still does.