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Ethical Dilemmas Of Truman Capote

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In the movie Capote (2005), Truman Capote found himself fascinated and intrigued by a family’s murder in a small Kansas town. He and his research assistant, Nelle Harper Lee, visited the sight of the murders, the school that the witnesses attended, and the home of the detective, Alvin Dewey. Soon after, two suspects are identified and given a trial. The jury of all white men announce their verdict and sentence: guilty and death. By this time, Capote has begun to establish a relationship with one of the suspects, Perry Smith. There were a couple of ethical dilemmas that stood out in the viewing of this movie. The first was the mentality of Capote that people can be bought. This was shown in monetary forms such as when Capote paid the Porter to state what a great writer Capote was in front of Harper Lee or when Capote paid the Warden in order to let him in to visit with Perry Smith at any time he desired. This was also shown in actions such as when, upon Capote hearing that Perry had not eaten or drank for a month, he brought and fed him baby food along with aiding him in drinking water. Polit and Beck (2017) state that because of the relationships that qualitative researchers often develop with …show more content…

Capote dangled hope in front of Perry by recommending he find a lawyer and appeal the jury’s decision. He gave Perry hope that the book he would write could be used as evidence of the innocent intent of the suspect. He lied to Perry on multiple occasions by stating he didn’t know what he would name the title of the book. As Polit and Beck (2017) discuss, it is not uncommon for a pseudotherapeutic relationship to develop due to the distance between the researcher and participant declining. However, this relationship can heighten the risk that exploitation can occur, inadvertently or not (Polit & Beck,

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She acted as Capote’s protector, as was not afraid to stand against his bullies. As adults, Lee and Capote remained friends, but also became colleagues. In 1959, Lee traveled to Kansas with Capote to help him on an article on a murder case. Lee served as a research assistant; she interviewed townspeople, compiled notes, and shared

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1254 Words | 6 Pages

Although the article Dylan Roof’s Past Reveals Trouble at Home and School gives light into Dylan Roof’s life, it does not go into the depth of emotions that Capote uses to show Perry’s troubled past. Capote uses tone to enhance Perry’s emotions in order to make him seem more relatable to the audience despite being a brutal murderer. In the passage on page 131, Capote reveals dark parts of Perry’s childhood through the perspective of Perry himself: “It was not long afterward my mother put me to stay in a Catholic orphanage. The one where the black widows were always at me. Hitting me” (Capote 131).

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The novel, In Cold Blood, is an anomaly in the literary paradigm. The author, Truman Capote, designed his novel in a way that made it unique when compared to others. His fundamental purpose was to present the problem of American violence and the fragility of the American Dream and how it can be so easily shattered. In order to portray his purpose, he used many rhetorical devices including syntax, diction, tone, ethos, logos and pathos. These devices allowed Capote’s novel to be different from the spectrum of other non-fiction novels and to support his purpose.

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In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, was a non-fictional novel published in 1965. Written in four parts, Capote meticulously details the brutal 1959 murders of the recognized farmer Herbert Clutter, Bonie Clutter, Nancy Clutter and Kenyon Clutter in the small, once peaceful, city of Holcomb, Kansas. Throughout the book, while Capote sympathetically depicts the murders of the Clutter family, we also realize that the author has a strong sympathy for one of the murders called Perry Edward Smith. Although the novel was intended to be written in a journalistic form, Capote seems to fictionalize much of the information used to write the novel in order to add suspense and certain reactions from the readers. Truman Capote’s new literary form of “the non-fictional novel” leaves the readers feeling conflicting emotions

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The movie Capote (2005) posed many ethical issues in relation to the way qualitative information was conducted. The first of which being the study, or research design, was not approved or monitored by a review board, ethics board or review committees. Capote read about a murder that had occurred in a small town in Kansas and came up with the idea to write about it. There was no informed consent shared with members of the community that he and Harper Lee spoke with regarding the murders. I do not believe that many members of the community were even aware that he was working on a writing, and felt he was just a concerned citizen.

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Murder can be defined as “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another”. How then, are others able to make us sympathize with not only murderers, but people who have committed horrendous crimes? For example, the media is constantly attempting to humanize rapists and even terrorists with phrases like “lone wolf” or “alienated and adrift.” Such phrases make some of us want to pity the criminal. This can be seen when we compare Perry Smith and Dick Hickock from Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.

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One of America’s twentieth century most well-known and controversial author and writer was Truman Capote. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 30, 1924 as Truman Streckfus Persons, he was a son of a small-town girl, Lillie Mae and charming schemer, Archulus Persons. At age four, his parents got divorced, leaving him in the care of his mother’s relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. In Monroeville, he met and befriended Harper Lee, the author of the famous literature novel To Kill a Mockingbird. They were total opposites: Capote was sensitive and was teased by others while Lee was pretty much a tomboy, however that drew them closer.

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Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird explains that to grow up, one must understand the flaws of the world. Maycomb Alabama is a quiet isolated town, set in the 1930’s. In the eyes of Jem and Scout, their town is ideal and without fault. As they gain more experience, Jem and Scout realize that society has nefarious views on the world.

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A multitude of events and characters float down the river of moral maturation with Huckleberry Finn, diverting his path from that of nihilistic ambivalence and implicit biases, to genuine tolerance and recognition of the humanity within Jim. The novel begins with Huck as passive observer of and participant in the racism enveloping his surroundings, just beginning to take the first steps toward compassion. He doesn’t react in any negative manner to his abusive father’s rantings about “this country where they’d let that nigger vote” (28), or Tom Sawyer’s treatment of Jim as a toy to be manipulated, showing the normality of prejudice in his context. It’s really not until he meets Jim on Jackson’s Island that the assumption of inherent black inferiority

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Both struggled to find a place in society. Capote experienced backlash for being gay at the time it was highly frowned upon, and Holly is seen as a young attention-seeking girl who thrives on male attention. Through these times though, both people stayed true to themselves. In the

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What we desire, and we need has a very clear distinction. Desires may not increases the chances of survival, but what we need is it self our survival. The things we try to obtain may include,independence,rights, and most importantly freedom. Freedom is only obtained for our enjoyment but is it really what we need?

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It is clear that Truman Capote believes that the systematic execution of murderers is flawed, and that the legal system in which death-penalty bound convicts are tried is a skewed one. In the novel, the reader finds out that Perry has been diagnosed by a psychiatrist as a paranoid schizophrenic. “More extensive

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Facts and Fiction: A Manipulation of Language in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood English is a fascinating and riveting language. Subtle nuances and adjustments can easily change the understanding of a literary work—a technique many authors employ in order to evoke a desired response from their readers. This method is used especially in In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, a literary work which details a true event about the murders of four members of the Clutter family in the small community of Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. Although Capote’s 1966 book was a bestseller nonfiction and had successfully garnered acclaim for its author, there is still a great deal of confusion about the distinction between the factual and fictional aspects in the book.

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