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Truman Capote: Southern Gothic Movement

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Truman Capote was an author of the Southern Gothic Movement. This movement is characterized by having characters that can be seen as damaged and live in confusing world. These characters usually live a world that is falling apart that is filled with betrayal and hypocrisy. This literary period is an extension of the Gothic Movement which was supported by authors that had the goal of exposing the problems they see in society. The “Southern” part of the name is included because the movement was developed is the south of the United States, adding cultural cues of “Southern Charm-to bring life to their slice of history.” It seems obvious that Truman Capote would write inline with this movement as he came from the New Orleans and had a disruptive childhood, marked by the divorce of his parents many of his stories were composed to show his own experiences, such as living without a father and moving between multiple locations that he mentions within his writings. …show more content…

This short story is narrated by an unnamed young author who accounts for his life while living in the presence of Holly(Holiday) Golightly. Throughout the story Holly is shown to be deeply disturbed, living a lifestyle in which she entertains men for gifts and relays gang messages between an imprisoned mob boss and his lawyer. Although she may seem far off she came from a disrupted background where her “mother died of TB, and [her] papa done the same(Capote 54).”After losing her parents she was sent out with her only companion being her brother Fred. She was then found by a farmer,Doc Golightly, whom she married and became the mother of his children all at the age of 14

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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 Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, there is no hero. The protagonist is not a hero, nor the law enforcement. Heroism becomes irrelevant when searching for justice following a tragedy such as the one seen on November 15th, 1959 in Holcomb, Kansas. Complexity, next to justice, is primary to put into account during the aftershocks . Perry Smith is the protagonist in the novel, not only due to author’s bias but also due to his sheer dynamic, a man disconnected from word to action.

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Normality in Capote’s Text ‘In Cold Blood’ Truman Capote, in his non-fiction journalistic narrative, gives readers the opportunity to reconsider the dichotomy of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’. Capote also suggests true normality differs from society’s concept of normality. The concept of normality is challenged throughout the entirety of ‘In Cold Blood’, first in the Clutter family, then in Dick and Perry and in sexuality throughout the text. The Clutters, a seemingly ‘normal’ family who have obtained a wealthy and successful life, are polite and hardworking, community-driven and respected.

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Disturbing, horrendous, and gut-wrenching could be words used to describe the complex and twisted movie, Capote (Baron, Vince, & Ohoven, 2005). Based upon the murder of the Clutter family in 1959, Truman Capote traveled to Kansas to cover the story for The New Yorker (Baron, Vince, & Ohoven, 2005). However, during his own personal investigation he realizes that the story is too extensive for a magazine article, so he decides to write a book (Baron, Vince, & Ohoven, 2005). Finally, this is where Capote’s story of troubling, and unprofessional research commences (Baron, Vince, & Ohoven, 2005). First, at the start of his research collection Capote did not seek approval from any review board or ethics board (Baron, Vince, & Ohoven, 2005).

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The website, the-artifice, claims, “Twain was passionate within the racial equality debate, feeling that it was a moral right for America to allow African-Americans the same freedoms as whites.” This feeling is translated in the character of Jim, a slave of miss Watson who escaped and travels with Huck, who is a key plot point in showing the everyday race relations of the Deep south pre-civil war. The first example of this is when Jim was going to be sold off by Miss Watson for cash to someone down the river even though this would split him up from his family. This reveals a lot about the power dynamic between African Americans and whites in the rest of the book. Jim was never asked for his opinion on the matter and is instead treated as an

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My dreams for my family and I have been shattered. My life has become dulled. The day Mr.Truman Capote came to interview me about the murder overwhelms me with the numbing feeling of February wind. I was likely shuffling to my house trying to avoid frost from biting my skin

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The main idea Harper Lee (author of To Kill A Mockingbird) developes in the book regards the conflict between self determination and societal expectations. The genre of a social drama really brings out the problems that many people faced during the 1930’s and because of this the book illustrates a different type of environment and really brings the reader back to that time and age. In focusing on the specific conflict of self determination we see how and what it takes for people to overcome society's expectations during this time. The entirety of Life, people are having to make choices, but the most important choice shows who you really are, a follower or a leader.

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Some aspects of history should stay hidden. In the Southern Gothic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, it tells a story of southern culture and values through a young girl’s perspective of growing up in the 1930s in Alabama. The Southern Gothic genre is supposed to resemble the southern culture, but have a bit of a creepier element to it. Throughout this time period, Lee illustrates the struggles and hardships, as well as victories and overcoming obstacles for the people. She also writes of very realistic problems many faced in the 1930s such as money problems, discrimination, growing up, learning the truth, and judging.

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Truman Capote uses variety of language devices such as diction, similes and symbolism to vividly develop Perry Smith in his novel In Cold Blood and reveal aspects of the murder. Perry Smith is a sensitive, somewhat frightening and psychologically unstable character, but then again

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