Part I: The Last To See Them Alive
Pages 1-24 SETTING
1.The second and third paragraphs present a picture of Holcomb via a series of divergences or contrasts. a.) Create a bulleted list of at least three (3) of these. After the list, briefly answer the following questions. b.) What effect does this description have? c.) Why might Capote have chosen to focus on these specifics?
a.) ~"...Unnamed, unshaded, unpaved."
~"...an electric sign - DANCE - but the dancing has ceased..."
~"...Irrelevant sign,... Flaking gold on a dirty window - HOLCOMB BANK. The bank closed in 1933... counting rooms converted into apartments."
~"... ramshackle mansion known as the teacherage."
~"... One -story affairs, with front porches."
~".... a falling-apart post office."
b.)These descriptions help visualize the town ans what it once was in its glory. I shows the town for what it is and that you can't judge it for what it looks like. It also shows a bit of forshadowing for the later event in this section of the book.
c.)He might have chosen to do so because it really helps understand that the town is really unknown anymore, and that the town has dwindled.it shows that the town may look one way but it hide what it really is . You really can't take things for their face value.
2.The opening section employs a journalistic attention to detail to introduce us to Holcomb, Kansas. Create a bulleted list of at least ten (10) key descriptions that identify the setting of the novel --- include references to time, place, region, and atmosphere.
Pages 24-55 POINT OF VIEW
3. Authors make conscious decisions about how they will tell a story. Capote tells this story from two alternating points of view--the Clutters' and the murderers'. a.) First identify two (2) example of each of these points of view (2 separate passages). b.) Then, comment on the effect of this structure, and the absence of Capote's voice in the narrative. You may refer to passages from previous pages, but you must include some details from this section.
a.) Perry & Dick
1.'"O.k., beauty. Put away the comb," said Dick, dressed now and ready to go....they went out to the car.'(32)
2.'But Dick had made up his mind....,Flawlessly devised.'(37)
The Clutters
1.'"Nancy and her Protegee,....With a little help.'(24)
2."'Kenyon had built the chest,......The furniture of the den,...'(38)
Pages 55-74 CHARACTER
4. Rather than fictional protagonist with an antagonist and minor characters, this novel has a entire cast of characters, allvery real people. Even so, Capote does not present them as objectively as a journalist might; he builds complex characters, more fictional in presentation than journalistic. a.) List the member of the Clutter family and other victims and at least one detail that personalizes them (cite page number). b.) Then, find two (2) details each that personalize Perry and Dick.
a.) Clutters and victims:
1.The second and third paragraphs present a picture of Holcomb via a series of divergences or contrasts. a.) Create a bulleted list of at least three (3) of these. After the list, briefly answer the following questions. b.) What effect does this description have? c.) Why might Capote have chosen to focus on these specifics?
a.) ~"...Unnamed, unshaded, unpaved."
~"...an electric sign - DANCE - but the dancing has ceased..."
~"...Irrelevant sign,... Flaking gold on a dirty window - HOLCOMB BANK. The bank closed in 1933... counting rooms converted into apartments."
~"... ramshackle mansion known as the teacherage."
~"... One -story affairs, with front porches."
~".... a falling-apart post office."
b.)These descriptions help visualize the town ans what it once was in its glory. I shows the town for what it is and that you can't judge it for what it looks like. It also shows a bit of forshadowing for the later event in this section of the book.
c.)He might have chosen to do so because it really helps understand that the town is really unknown anymore, and that the town has dwindled.it shows that the town may look one way but it hide what it really is . You really can't take things for their face value.
2.The opening section employs a journalistic attention to detail to introduce us to Holcomb, Kansas. Create a bulleted list of at least ten (10) key descriptions that identify the setting of the novel --- include references to time, place, region, and atmosphere.
- "High wheat plains of western Kansas , a lonesome area that other Kansas call "out there."(3)
- "Seventy miles east of the Colorado border." (3)
- ".. with blue skies and desert-clear air,... more far west than middle west."(3)
- "... local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-handed nasalness..."(3)
- "The land is flat ,and the views are awesomely extensive: horses, herds of cattle, a white of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them."(3)
- "...and aimless congregation of buildings derived in the center by the main-line tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad..."(3)
- "After rain or when the snowfalls thaw, the rains unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust into the direst mud."(3)
- "..Rupp family were Roman Catholics, the Clutters , Methodist - a fact that should in itself be a sufficient to terminate whatever fancies she and this boy might have."(8)
- "The house - for the most part was designed by Mr. Clutter, thereby proved himself a sensible and sedate, if not notably decorative, architect- had been built in 1948 for forty thousand dollars."(9)
- "Autumns neward western Kansas for the evils that the remaining seasons impose: winter's rough Colorado winds and hip-high, sheep-slughtering snows; the slushes and the strange land fogs of spring; and summer, when even crow seek the puny shade, and the twany infinitude of wheatstalks bristle ,blaze."(10)
- "At last , after September, another weather arrives, and Indian summer that occasionally endures until Christmas."(11)
- "Fifty years ago, according to native memory, it would have taken a lumberjack ten minutes to axe all the trees in western kanses. Even today, only cotton woods and Chinese elms - perennails with a cactuslike indifference to thirst-are commonly planted."(12)
Pages 24-55 POINT OF VIEW
3. Authors make conscious decisions about how they will tell a story. Capote tells this story from two alternating points of view--the Clutters' and the murderers'. a.) First identify two (2) example of each of these points of view (2 separate passages). b.) Then, comment on the effect of this structure, and the absence of Capote's voice in the narrative. You may refer to passages from previous pages, but you must include some details from this section.
a.) Perry & Dick
1.'"O.k., beauty. Put away the comb," said Dick, dressed now and ready to go....they went out to the car.'(32)
2.'But Dick had made up his mind....,Flawlessly devised.'(37)
The Clutters
1.'"Nancy and her Protegee,....With a little help.'(24)
2."'Kenyon had built the chest,......The furniture of the den,...'(38)
Pages 55-74 CHARACTER
4. Rather than fictional protagonist with an antagonist and minor characters, this novel has a entire cast of characters, allvery real people. Even so, Capote does not present them as objectively as a journalist might; he builds complex characters, more fictional in presentation than journalistic. a.) List the member of the Clutter family and other victims and at least one detail that personalizes them (cite page number). b.) Then, find two (2) details each that personalize Perry and Dick.
a.) Clutters and victims:
- Herb Clutter- Hard-working, religious man, fast paced.
- Bonnie Clutter- High-strung, bad health. (61)
- Nancy Clutter- Girlish (55)
- Kenyon Clutter-
- Beverly Clutter-Engaged, Home in Winfield, Kansas
- Eveanna Jarchow - Eldest daughter of Mr. Clutter, home in Mount Carroll, Illinois. (71)
- Arthur Clutter - Mr. Clutters brother, from Larned, Kanasas.(71)
- Clarence Cutter -Mr. Clutters brother, from Larned, Kanasas.(71)
- Mrs. Harry Nelson - Mr. Clutters sister, from Larned, Kanasas.(71)
- Mrs. Elaine Selsor - Mr. Clutters sister, from Palatka, Florida.(71)
- Nancy Ewalt - Only child, clothes-conscious, Film-star figure, coy. (58)
- Mr. Clarence Ewalt - Middle-aged sugar-beet farmer(58)
- Susan Kidwell - Tall,languid young lady, oval face with beautiful pale-blue-gray eyes.(59)
- Mrs. Helm -The only person who ever locked doors. (59)
- Larry Hendrick - English teacher, Aged twenty-seven, has three active children. (60-61)
- Mrs. Sadie Tuitt -Seems younger than her years. Is a stocky, weathered widow.(66)
- Mrs. Myrtle Clare - Postmistress. A gaunt, trouser-wearing, woolen-shirted, cowboy-booted, ginger-colored, gingerey-tempered woman.(67)
- Mrs. Bess Hartman - Sparsely fleshed, unfoolish lady with bobbed gray-and-gold hair and bright, authoritative green eyes.(70)
- Mrs. Bob Johnson - Wife of the New York Life Insurance agent, is and exellent cook.(70)
- Mr. Johnson- New York Life Insurance agent.(70)
- Johnny Rupp - Father of eight, of whom bobby is the third. (71)
- Larry Rupp -Bobbys younger brother. Though only fourteen, he was taller of the two, deep chested. (72)
- Bobby Rupp - Long legs athlectichonors, less than medium sized - compact slender, with a handsome face. (72)
- Mr. & Mrs. Arthur B. Fox - Parents of Bonnie Clutter, Live in Pasadena, California.(71)
- Harold Fox - lives in Visalia, California (71)
- Howard Fox - lives in Oregon, Illinois(71)
- Glen Fox - lives on Kansas City, Kansas(71)
- Perry
- Richard