Analysis Of Maya Capote's In Cold Blood

Identity is much more than the features or name one is born with. Identity means having values and ideas that a person lives by; it is something people create for themselves by making notable choices that require valiant dedication in the face of challenges. Everyday people make choices that can create how they are identified throughout their lives. Capote demonstrates this idea in his nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood. The two essays that share the same proposition as Capote’s idea are “Cut” by Bob Greene and “Graduation” by Maya Angelou. What is it that defines a person? The development of one’s identity can be determined by the choices they make and actions they take. In Cold Blood, is a novel that takes a look into the brutal murder of

For others, they may take an impact throughout their lives and turn it around for the better. The essay “Cut” from Bob Greene describes the experience of him being cut from his middle school basketball team. Being on the middle school basketball team meant everything to Greene during that period of his life, for him it was “the boys whose names were on the list, who were still on the team, had been judged worthy while I had been judged unworthy”(Greene 56). Throughout the essay, Greene talks about other men who were also cut from their middle school baseball teams and how it they took that and make it a big part of their life and never tried to fail again. The stories define how each man can point to an event in his life and say that’s the thing that made him the way he is, the occurrence that defines their identity and makes them grow into who they are. The men Greene writes of are now ambitious and successful, like a fire as he describes “Once that fire is started in us, it never gets extinguished” (Greene

Maya Angelou shares her eighth grade experience in the 1940’s where she grew up in a racial segregation throughout the south in her essay titled “Graduation”. She recounts how African-Americans were not valued for their education intelligence and implies her irritation and concerns after her eighth grade graduation. She comprehends how black people did not have accessibility even if they were educated as she listens to her peers and thinks “Hadn’t he got the message? There was no “nobler in the mind” for Negroes because the world didn’t think we had minds, and they let us know it”(Angelou 475). The graduation took a toll in Maya’s life, and made her break the barriers of being told that people of her race could not make it far. Based on Maya Angelou’s actions and choices, she has now created her identity known worldwide as a famous poet, speaker and