Truman Capote's Excessive Lying
Truman Capote once said, "I don't care what anybody says about me, as long as it isn't true" (Creative). Surely enough, Capote himself kept true to this statement throughout his life. According to Johnny Carson's ex-wife, Joanne Carson, whom Capote lived with near the end of his life, Capote would take her on imaginary trips to Paris, China, or Spain while in her front yard (Plimpton 422). But on a more serious note, Carson claims that Capote would lie about the simple facts about a party or an outing they had gone on (Plimpton 304). When confronted by Carson, Capote replied, "If that's not the way it happened, it's the way it should have happened" (qtd. in Plimpton 304). Eventually, Capote's lies caused
…show more content…
The language fluency includes general conversational abilities and compositional skills (Healy and Healy). Considering Capote was a writer, his verbal skills were noticeably developed. Marie Rudisill remembers that as a young boy, Capote would carry his Webster's dictionary with him where ever he went (Park). In addition, Jennings Faulk Carter remembers that as a young child, Capote was often found having conversations with Nelle Harper Lee's father about words and crossword puzzles (Plimpton 12). Capote even described his fascination with words in a piece he had written. In it, Capote said, "Writing was always an obsession with me, quite simply something I had to do" (qtd. in Plimpton 13). Capote's natural ability for language shows in every piece he composed.
In conclusion, no one will ever know why Truman Capote lied to such an extreme. Maybe he really was a pathological liar; he definitely appears to fit the mold. But maybe he was compensating for the lack of love and attention he received in his earlier years. Or maybe he just thought the lies gave some additional mystery and secrecy to his life. Truthfully, though, Capote might have had the better outlook on life. If life is banal or depressing, make life more pleasurable to remember by making up a new story on how if occurred. Not all lying is wrong, is
This selection almost creates a feeling that Capote is talking about himself as opposed to a man he never met.
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, is a nonfiction piece that is based on murders that occurred in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15th, 1959. This book seems to be banned for sex, violence, and profanity. Even though it contains sex, violence, and profanity, It shouldn’t be banned because suppressing such literature not only deprives them of developing their own creativity and uniqueness but will also deprive them of the real world and If students are restricted to a library full of prancing ponies and perfect worlds they're developing a false pretense that we live in a perfect little world.
They say “Honesty is the best policy”, but that isn’t necessarily true especially for those who lived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Honesty may have been a good trait for someone to have, but during the witch trials people rethought that. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrayed many people as good puritans. Always loyal and honest throughout their lives, and avoiding any sins that they possibly could. But there were people who had to sin to save their lives or even to save their reputation. Abigail Williams was just an young girl who turned to lying in order to save herself during the Salem Witch Trials. At the same time, Elizabeth Proctor was not agreeing with the witch business that she was accused of. You could tell lies during this time, and no one would think that you were turning too sins because the entire town was becoming obsessed about all those accused of possible witchcraft. While some were being accused, others were avoiding the truth when confessing. Like when Abigail never confessed to drinking blood when she was with Tituba and Betty. In The Crucible, Honesty was portrayed
Capote uses different voices to tell the story, creating an intimacy between the readers and the murders, the readers and the victims, and all the other players in this event—townspeople, investigators, friends of the family. This intimacy lead...
He lied to Perry Smith and the police for his benefits. He lied to police because he said he would writing about how the murder had impacted the community, but he was writing about how the Clutter family was killed. Capote bribed a prison warren to attain access to Perry, a man involved in the Clutter family murder case. Moreover, Capote was writing a book with getting substantial information from the two men who were accused of brutal murder of an entire family at night, but he was hiding the title from the two killers. He wanted to make them believe that his writing was about their unjust trail. In a program, he said about the title of his book was “In Cold Blood” however when Perry asked him about it, he answered that he had to come up with the title and he gave it as a title, but that was not the real title. It seems clear that Capote’s behavior was questionable on how he attained access to Perry and how he lied to h...
According to Mark Twain, “A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.” Throughout literary history, the reoccurring theme of a shady character performing immoral, habitual actions is no new topic. These vial characters entertain readers by their confident persona and their desire to win. The literary pieces that include this genre of character are especially prominent entering the 19th century, as humor and deception become key components of literature. Mark Twain, one of the most distinguished American authors in the 19th century, made his living by writing “light, humorous verse, but evolved this literature into a chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind.” The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, written by Mark Twain, focuses on a narrator from the east suffering through a Westerner’s tale about a jumping frog as the author attempts to entertain the reader through its oddities in the short story, its humorous tall tale of satire, and its desire to inform the reader of East versus West stereotypes.
Lies litter the halls of everyone’s mind. Deception scatters itself among the truth, blending in like a chameleon in the desert. Trickery is swept under the carpet, pushed from the forefront of the beholder’s thoughts. Tales of fiction escape the deceiver’s mouth with an intent to present himself or herself in a certain fashion. Dishonesty works like a sprinkler, drenching relationships in a thick cloud of pure deceit when the speaker wishes to. Some acts of deception affect the audience in different manners. A small falsehood goes unnoticed, causing no harm, just another chip in the liar’s conscious. Other purposeful inaccuracies rip and tear relationships apart. The final unveiling of the truth, however small or simplistic the mendacity is, is explosive; this finale could terminate a connection. Blanche Dubois from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams learns this treacherous lesson in her attempt to conquer her insecurities. Blanche was caught in a web of lies she and her family told; she was beyond the point of no return and received a backlash most would not wish upon their greatest enemy. These lies, although present in the written play, are emphasized in the film adaptation of the play. In the film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, deception is enhanced through the film crew’s choice of lighting, sound, and the portrayal of characters in the film.
When confronted with a problem, why does the human brain default to lying? Dishonesty is never a solution, although it may seem like the best option in the spur of a moment. My grandma always gave the example of her youth: she avoided and deceived her friend’s sister because the little girl riled everyone. Come to find out, the sister passed the following month due to an illness. I could never imagine the guilt she experienced. Nevertheless, everyone has been deceitful before and many characters were in the tragedy, The Crucible, by playwright Arthur Miller. Reasons for lying are understandable, but most people will admit that mendacity has only caused pain. Lying’s outcome is never positive: it may seem like a good option, for falsehood can save a person’s life, benefit someone, and it eases stress, but these are all transitory.
In this story he gives the murderers their own sense of self and showed how they choose to deal with their lives. This also lets readers know that each person was different and that neither of them truly knew how to “be normal”, as most people would say, and live their own lives without causing trouble. Pushing the reader to form an opinion, biased or not, with the information that was given about each character by Capote. Capote through this all, did a great job of bringing the murderers to life for his reader and sharing the stories of each person that may not have been said by the media or anything else that gives people information about the world that is around them. Giving these characters lives and experiences were great parts to the story and is what ultimately gave the book its
Capote used pathos in this book mostly to make the reader sad or feel sympathy for a character. In the beginning of the bo...
This passage when Capote begins to introduce Perry more in depth. From his childhood to later on in his life. Perry’s way of life as a child was a tough one, in which his mother put him in a “catholic orphanage. The one where the Black Widows were always at me. Hitting me. Because of wetting the bed…They hated me, too.” Capote’s use of short sentence syntax creates the effect of emphasizing the horrible and dramatic conditions Perry had to live with. Also, the nuns of the orphanage are described as “Black Widows,” a metaphor, to make it seem like it was truly terrible. The color black associates with death and when metaphorically used to describe a nun, it creates sympathy for Perry. Later in the passage, capote creates a short narrative of Perry’s experience in war. “Perry, one balmy evening in wartime 1945…” The storytelling helps understand more about Perry in the way he thinks and acts. The atmosphere of this passage is a sad mood. It talks about the terrible childhood and early life of Perry. It is clear that no one ever cared for Perry and it affected him dramatically.
Tying in with the lack of guilt, sociopaths and psychopaths alike feel no shame or remorse for manipulating people to get what they want, whether that be entertainment, admiration, material items, or whatever else they may please. Hickock undoubtedly gets quite the kick out of lying; he has no moral reluctance or hesitation to spout out untruths and illusions for his own personal gain or manipulation. But Smith’s deceitful tendencies are on the contrary. He rarely lies for his own personal benefit and instead tells tales of his “experiences” to gain approval from others he desperately craves. On their journey across the country after the murders, Smith confessed to Hickock, claiming he had killed a black man in Las Vegas with a bicycle chain, in order to impress Hickock. But this backfires, as later in the book, Hickock tells the detectives about the incident, to which Smith responds, “[he] never killed any [black man].” Capote specifically includes this quote immediately before the confessions to downplay the fact that Smith had, in fact, murdered four innocent people, but because he had not killed anyone previously, he is not as barbaric as a psychopath. The contrasts in the types and reasons for lying between the two could possibly be explained by the differences in their ego
Pathological Gambling, is characterized by irrational urges to continue gambling despite its negative effects (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). This disorder may cause someone to gamble, a prohibition that Maimonides draws out from the verse, “Do not withhold that which is due to your neighbor” (Ben Maimon, Description and Explanation of commandments from the Rambam, c. 1167/1990). Similarly, pathological lying is characterized by the impulse to tell lies, most of which are to no benefit of the speaker and to outlandish to believe. (Dike, 2008) A pathological liar definitely transgresses the commandment to “Distance yourself from falsehood” (Exod.
Gerald Clarke, ed. Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote. New York: Random House,
Is lying wrong? While lying strikes almost everyone as an immoral act, people often find themselves telling “little white lies.” In Oscar Wilde’s witty play, The Importance of Being Earnest, the word earnest implies seriousness and sincerity, yet the two protagonists, Jack and Algernon, both deceive people around them. To escape the constraints of society, each one fabricates a fictitious alter ego named Earnest. When their finances, who swore they could only marry a man named Earnest, discover the truth, chaos ensues. Meanwhile, Wilde cleverly reveals the consequences of petty untruths.