Analysis Of Capote: The Inhumanity Of Capital Punishment

Although Capote describes the life ending events of Dick and Perry, he craves to present the dark reality of their retribution; therefore arguing the inhumanity of capital punishment. Capote contrasts the fanaticism and the reality of hanging guilty people by utilizing a conversation surrounding the hanging of Dick Hickock. One man amongst the small crowd converses with another in between murders, ¨ They don't feel nothing. Drop, snap, and that's it. They don´t feel nothing¨ (Capote 340). The frigid reporter alongside him quivers, ¨Are you sure? I was standing right close. I could hear him gasping for breath¨ (Capote 340). The notion of a healthy human body being forced into death is gruesome and violent. People believe this is the right thing, but continue to dismiss the fact that these are human beings. Watching a human being pass, witnessing the grapple between life and death, is a grim and horrifying sight. People

Capote includes these to prove the public is blinded by sugar coated versions, to push aside the brutality of the deaths. A noose hanging alone in a rugged, spacious barn is not referred to as a place of misconduct but as ¨the corner¨ (Capote 334). This provides ideas of lesser evil in this space, while this barn is nothing but evil. This final resting place for the offenders, is seen as a social gathering for those associated. Putting people of equal misdeed all in one barn. After delinquents are hanged, one man mentions the struggle after the crack of the rope and says, ¨He danced for a long while¨ (Capote 339). The comparison of the twitching doomed corpse to something enjoyable, brightens the image around a struggling body fighting for its life. The nicknames for these places somehow allow people to detach these terrible things from reality, illuminating that the people are unable to see the true horror behind their