p. 278-79 As much as Dick is an unappealing character--though a very smooth talker in person--even I start to wonder if perhaps his car accident that caused extensive head injuries could be a legitimate reason for some of his aberrant behavior (note the vocab word!). His lawyers should be making this a main argument in his defense.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
#4 ICB pp. 254-279
p. 276 Perry writes that he would like to speak with the therapist again--because he feels a "'remarkable exhiliration being among people with a purpose and sense of dedication to carry out that purpose.'" I wonder if this is why he desires to be around Capote. He probably loves the fact that someone who is know for his intellect wants to get to know him--give him the attention that was so obviously absent in his childhood.
#3 ICB pp. 254-279
p. 266 Perry states, "'She lifted me.... I was free, I was flying, I was better than any of them.'" The bird is symbolic of a savior to Perry. Just as the bird used to save him and to avenge him from the nuns who abused him for wetting the bed, now the bird will save him from the sheriff. It's interesting that he says "'I was better than any of them.'" Who are all the thems in Perry's life--who are the people he felt beneath, whose expectations he didn't meet? Probably his dad, the nuns...who else?
#2 ICB pp. 254-279
p. 256 "I think we both felt very high. I did. Very high, and very relived at the same time. Couldn't stop laughing, neither one of us; suddenly it all seemed very funny--I don't know why, it just did." Just when Capote seems to build a case that Perry is human, he places this information into the text. Perhaps that's what made his book so successful as the first nonfiction novel; it contains information that appeals to a complex picture of the criminals. Too often, we just say someone is a "bad apple," so to speak. But, nature took certain, at times deliberate steps in producing that apple--just as she takes care to produce the "good apples." The question I find Capote posing to us over and over is "What creates the criminal mind?" How do we move from a productive person in society to one who wreaks so much violence and heart ache?
#1 ICB pp.254-279
p. 254 The beginning of The Corner introduces Mr. and Mrs. Meier. Again, through the diverse perspectives of the undersheriff and his wife, I am torn between pity for Perry and anger at his lack of forethought: With the bouts of rage that Perry succumbs to, could he ever be trusted not to kill again--give the "wrong" circumstances? Mr. Meier saw the bloody nightmare at the Clutter home. Would they be bothered by the four Clutter graves, or would they divert their attention to their own "pitiful" pasts and once again not be able to empathize the way moral people do?
Sunday, December 4, 2011
ICB pp. 224-254
pp. 246-248 Present tense vs. past tense. Capote switches into present tense during the drive back to Garden City from Colorado and while he tells of the two gray tomcats (portrays of Dick and Perry?). Then he switches into past tense as he describes how the people react to Dick and Perry exiting the police vehicle and entering the police station. I wonder if the present tense relates to "Answer," for it is in this section that the detectives finally find their answers as to what happened to the Clutters. Perry's genial revelation of events opens the door to the answers, but the door quickly shuts and Capote's writing quickly shifts into past tense again with "the year's first snow began to fall." There is a change in tense, change in season--each leading us into a foreboding change as the text heads to "The Corner."
ICB pp. 224-254
pp. 239 Dick and Perry stay at the farm house because Dick is "too ashamed to face it." The "it" is that he didn't actually have the perfect heist. He wasn't as smart as he led on. Later, Perry initiates the killings when he reacts to Dick's cowardice (not cutting Clutter's throat) and then sees himself crawling on the floor of Nancy's room, trying to find a young girl's silver dollar.kills Mr. Clutter. "The shame. The disgust" (244) Perry feels causes him to kill Mr. Clutter. To kill out of shame--to take four lives is disgusting, but Dick and Perry's morals are so tattered that they can't prioritize their feelings and, sadly, feel they can't control their actions. This is the difference in the moral and the criminal mind.
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