The Corner

Chapter 4 - The Corner

The Corner - the phrase for those who have gone to the execution stage. -"gone to The Corner."

In Chapter 4, Dick and Perry are sentenced to death by hanging. Hangings were seen as family events, so the people of the era would crowd around the gallows and watch - as if they were going to see a movie.

Hickock was first, when he got to the top of the gallows, a “delicate black mask was tied around his eyes”. The concept of delicacy before death is almost ironic, as if to put the coat on the cow before slitting its throat, as if to paint the house before demolishing the land.  Capote uses this to add relief to Dick’s death. 

Perry is hung, the story is much more different. Capote doesn’t have a reporter’s monologue, but a change in scene – like old friends seeing each other after a few years. Capote also uses mirror imaging and visional expression to portray the girl at the end of the book, “as Nancy would have been” – this gives us the idea of Nancy being the focus of the book, as well as her dad, the cyclical structure is based around Nancy.

Perry is strong in the beginning of the book, as Capote wants to depict the stature of the character, but also his mental state and backstory to why he is how he is. When the end of the book dawns, the focus is put more towards Dick and Nancy than towards Perry. When Perry dies, life goes on as normal, as in a revert in events. 

However, when Dick died, people were talking about him, us as readers felt empathy for Dick, but Capote presented Perry’s death as an optional part of the event that you could see. 

Chapter 3 - Answer

Chapter 3 - Answer

Answer (noun) - a thing that is said, written, or done as a reaction to a question, statement, or situation.

Chapter 1 & 3 are very similar. Although it is established who the murderers are in Chapter 1, Capote is very clever about the sequence in which he wants the reader to discover the motives and true connections between the murderers and the Clutters.

He establishes the true concept that surrounds trust. 

Chapters 3 and 4 are the “meaty parts of the book”.

We are introduced to Floyd Wells, who gives us the dirt that we need to know about Dick and Perry, and their plan to kill the Clutters.  

Floyd reveals what Dick confessed to him. 

By this point, we can denote that Dick is very loose-lipped and has essentially imprisoned himself and Perry before they’ve even committed their carnival of carnage against the Clutters.

Floyd was afraid to step forward as he felt his life “wouldn’t be worth a dead coyote”. Capote used this quote to connote the idea of coyote hunting, and fur stripping. Fur would be taken off the skin of a coyote or another animal, washed, tanned and then made into a lavish coat or pair of shoes. Capote has used this quote in the form of a strong antonym as in to say “we’ll kill you, however, were going to kill you in a way that your fur can’t be sold and your carcass will be thrown.”

Persons Unknown

Chapter 2 - Persons Unknown

In this chapter, the murder investigation is well underway. The bodies have been removed from the scene of the crime and suspicion and fear among the residents is sky high. Whereas before, everyone could trust each other, hostility has taken over, residents giving others second glances, paranoia setting in and trust dissolving between neighbours. When the constabulary closed their preliminary investigation, they ensured that the cleaned the Clutters' house as if nothing had taken place. 

The author also gives us some insight into Perry's life and his childhood. Capote illustrates how Perry was "a model child", looked after and loved. But when his parents split because of his mother's chronic alcoholism, Perry's life took a turn for the worst. Perry was trapped in a cyclical cycle of "care" and being sexually and physically abused by the nuns affected his mental health horrifically. This could be what makes Perry the way he is.

Capote sculpts Perry's level of sanity around the symbolism of a golden parrot. Whereas in other novels, like in Of Mice and Men, Lennie's dream is sculpted around rabbits, Perry's entire mentality is sculpted around a bird.

Capote introduces a new protagonist - Albert Dewey along with his family (minor characters). 

Chapter 1: The Last To See Them Alive

Part 1, Chapter 1: The Last To See Them Alive

The beginning of the chapter establishes the scene - a village in Holcomb in Western Kansas, 70 miles east from the border of Colorado. 

The residents' accents are described as "barbed with a prairie twang". 

• The adjective "barbed" denotes a sharp item (such as barbed wire). 
• The noun prairie denotes a large open space (such as grassland or deserts). 
• The noun "twang" denotes a nasal characteristic connoting somebody's dialect.

Capote uses symbolism to denote class - especially in relation to the men. He also uses asyndetic listing to describe the scene as a whole, to invoke imagery in the reader's head. He describes the men's attire denoting "many of them wearing narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons (which symbolised manhood as well as freedom) and high heeled boots with pointed toes (heels could connote status between the men).

Introduction to the blog and a little about me

Good morning/afternoon/evening!

My name is Jess - and I have started this blog to document my engagement with Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood".  Over the next two months, I will be keeping track of my learning and progress via this blog. 

In Cold Blood is made up of 4 chapters:

• The Last To See Them Alive
• Persons Unknown
• Answer

& The Corner.

From Thursday the 6th of July 2017, I will be starting to parse, summarise and analyse ICB.