The American Dream is a promise for liberty, opportunities, and social mobility. It envisions a society with few barriers where social class does not determine one’s future—an environment where anyone can reach their ambitions. Throughout In Cold Blood, Truman Capote narrates the story of various individuals capturing their share of American Dream to different extents. Capote elucidates that those who have accomplished their dreams live with higher contentment, but that the ideals of the American Dream are noninclusive and ineffective.
Capote conveys the benefits of reaching one’s goals with a juxtaposition of those who have succeeded with those who have fallen short. The author begins by describing Mr. Clutter as a man “certain of what he
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The author uses Barbara Smith, the sister of Perry and an obvious witness to his childhood, as a medium to present that “strong character, high courage, [and] hand work” were inadequate to counter the “doom [of the family] against which virtue was no defense” (282). Her belief that nothing would help her overcome her childhood circumstances implies that Smith’s parents had a strong power to thwart his ambitions and in effect forced him into his poor psychological state. By portraying the situation as a “doom,” Barbara underscores the unavoidable nature of her parent’s influence and demonstrates that the American Dream did not give way for the children in the family to follow their ambition. Moreover, Capote reveals that Dick had “an IQ test taken in prison [give] him a rating of 130” (60) and wanted to “study to be an engineer” but “plain didn’t have the money” (251). Capote makes it clear that Hickock held ambition, possessed exceptional skill, and was provided a supportive environment yet could not achieve his goals due to a simple financial constraint. Corroborating that socio-economic position of a family restricts the opportunities of the children, Capote exposes that the American Dream does not extend to all
For centuries, the American Dream has motivated citizens of the United States to go above and beyond in their efforts through life, yet not everyone is hoping to reach the same outcome. The stereotypical prosperous dream was for the average individual to have a successful job with a supportive and wealthy family. However, for some, their idealized version of the American Dream is different. Although the American Dream came in variations, a commonality within all of them was the pursuit of happiness. In the epilogue of The Epic of America, James Truslow Adams argues his idea that the American Dream cannot be defined by one type of accomplishment or triumph. He claims that the American Dream cannot be defined by one type of achievement or particular success, reiterating the fact that the dream is not about tangible goods creating a sense of artificial happiness, but every individual seeking to fulfill their utmost potential. Adams saw that the American Dream was eroding into a need for material possessions, causing him to combat the shift and attempt to preserve the original idea. This theory is echoed in Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle. Despite being hindered by
And finally, as the story concludes, you feel through Capote's careful presentation of the facts, that we are participants of the trial ourselves. We experience the witnesses testimony only when the jurors and spectators do so themselves. Having the author reserve vital information so that we learn only what the community learns, when they learn it, offers the opportunity for us to experience genuine emotions as the events unfold.
The almighty American dream, commonly misconceived as the property of those who reap great materialistic wealth, has been analyzed and sought after through generations. However, this dream, “could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country” (Goldberg), and the numerous success stories of impoverished beings proves this. This subjectiveness stems from the great diversity within human nature and the variation of goals and pleasures. The characters in novels such as The Glass Castle, To Kill a Mockingbird and the play, The Crucible, act to portray several attempts towards achieving this dream. Ultimately, the almighty American Dream manifests itself through the novels as the desire to accomplish stability and content within one’s
Capote transitions next into a reflective and somewhat didactic tone in the second chapter. The author begins to give the reader a more in-depth understanding of every character's situation and opinion. This chapter has a sequence of interviews with the townspeople which better illustrates the public ...
The concept of American dream originated in the 1600s, even before America was a country (“Ten Facts”). The forever changing American dream, has instilled in American literature the choices people are forced to make regarding their aspirations. Every generation has changed the common idea of what the American dream entails. There are immense possibilities as to how the common person interprets the American dream. The American dream inspires people to make their own decisions and prompts people that there is always another possibility (Izaguirre). In American literature the theme of choices and possibilities is prominent.
In the United States there is an idea many pursue called the American dream, which differs from person to person. The American dream according to americanradioworks.publicradio.org is “a revolutionary notion: each person has the right to pursue happiness, and the freedom to strive for a better life through hard work and fair ambition”. Yet it has been said there is no real definition of American dream, instead it merely proves that it has an unconscious influence in American mentality (Ştiuliuc 1). The American dream is different for each person because everyone yearns for things that will they hope will in return make them happy. Whatever that may be, each person goes through different struggles to obtain what they want. According to Frederic Carpenter, the American dream “has never been defined exactly, and probably never can be. It is both too various and too vague” (3). The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse depicts the different interpretations on what the American dream actually is through the opinions and actions of Hector Esperanza, Efren Mendoza and Mrs. Calhoun.
Literature attempts to shape or reflect society, and oftentimes literature reveals truths and provides insight into the condition of that society. The American Dream is a dominant theme in American literature, and in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the idealistic dream is critically evaluated. In this paper, I will explain the context of the work, and then I will compare and contrast Dick Perry (the murderers) with the Clutter family (the murdered) in relation to the theme of the fragility of the American Dream. Capote wrote what he considered to be the first nonfiction novel.
People from all around the world have dreamed of coming to America and building a successful life for themselves. The "American Dream" is the idea that, through hard work and perseverance, the sky is the limit in terms of financial success and a reliable future. While everyone has a different interpretation of the "American Dream," some people use it as an excuse to justify their own greed and selfish desires. Two respected works of modern American literature, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, give us insight into how the individual interpretation and pursuit of the "American Dream" can produce tragic results.
In Cold Blood is a work of art, and gave a true meaning to life itself. Capote referred to In Cold Blood as “New Journalism”. He said that he wanted to bring the art of the novelist together with the techniques of journalism. There is much truth in it, whether or not it is “true” is at least debatable (Garrett,80). This provoking book generates the kind of deep interest and deep discussion. Truman invented the genre of true crime. In Cold Blood is not a tragic drama but an intervention on reality (Dakes, 69). Its dramatic interest lies in the dramatic class of murders and the pursuit of the criminals. The material of In Cold Blood is to some extent a return to Capote’s childhood and a real-life confirmation of his earliest imaginative creations and techniques (Nance, Page 626). In Cold Blood consumed more than six years of his life, but it won him enthusiastic praise, mountains of publicity, and millions of dollars (Krebs,320). The novel tells the story of the murder of the Clutter family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children, and the events that lead the killers to murder. The family was living in Holcom...
Ubiquitous throughout history and across cultures is the concept of rich versus poor. Almost all people fall on a spectrum moving from poverty to affluence. A person’s position on this spectrum is labeled by sociologists as their socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status, often abbreviated as SES, is measured by a person’s income, education, and career. Socioeconomic status is a pinnacle factor in a person’s life, affecting their lifestyle, relationships, and even, as with Dick and Perry, criminal potential. Low socioeconomic status has been shown to correlate with chronic stress, education inequality, and a variety of health problems including hypertension,
Each character in the novel has their own interpretation of the ‘American Dream – the pursuit of happiness’ as they all lack happiness due to the careless nature of American society during the Jazz Age. The American Dreams seems almost non-existent to those whom haven’t already achieved it.
Herb Clutter, a man of described virtue, was blessed with respect from his peers and financial stability. Within the concept of the “American dream” virtuous people are always rewarded with financial stability. Conversely, Dick and Perry, who Capote depicts as the embodiment of the “American nightmare,” do not exhibit virtuous behavior and therefore, never experience the stability and respect that the Clutter’s experience. The distinction between the “American nightmare” and the “American dream” is easy to see. Capote argues, however, that these concepts do not hold true all of the time and that tragedy strikes even those who are the most virtuous. Thus, we must understand that life is fragile and no one is impregnable to tragedy.
The American Dream has been the ideal way of life to every citizen. Equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work and persistence allows people to strive for The American Dream. For others, The Dream might have a different meaning to what the think is achievable. In the essay, “Is the American Dream even possible” John Steinbeck makes accusations about the American Dream and the credibility of it. The American Dream in Steinbeck's perspective is that in reality, The Dream is there to believe but not there to its full potential.
In the novel, Mr. Clutter was described as a wealthy white man, “Always certain of what he wanted from the world, Mr. Clutter had in large measure obtained it” (Capote 7). According to Thomas Fahy, who wrote Understanding Truman Capote, “Capote’s writing captures the isolation, marginalization, and persecut of those who deviated from or failed to achieve white middle-class ideals and highlights the artificiality of mainstream idealizations about American culture” (Fahy). Both quotes show how Capote was able to create the idea of the Dream in which a white male was able to be wealthy and have a family but ultimately gets killed. Capote also wrote about how after the killers were ultimately executed families were still afraid to live the ideals of what was once thought as the American Dream in Kansas, “The dream of settling on his farm had not come true, for his wife’s fear of living in that sort of isolation had never lessened” (Capote 341). This can also be shown by a snippet in an article of the book, “The quiet rural community was shocked by the senseless killings of one of its most well-liked families,” (O’Reilly). Even after the conviction of the killers the fear was never lifted. People began to look at each other differently, changing what was once thought to be an ideal lifestyle of trusting one each other enough to leave doors unlocked. As a result, Capote’s writing reflects a “critical engagement” with the American culture that tests one to reevaluate the understanding of the 1940’s and 1950’s (Fahy). One main concept of the Dream, was when that when achieved, nothing else wrong would be able to happen. That once it was reached, life would be complete, but that was proved to be untrue. Causing people to reexamine what was believed for many years and contemplate how one moves about the future of
In the nonfiction novel, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, the author tells a story of the murderers and victims of a slaughter case in Holcomb, Kansas. Instead of writing a book on the murder case as a crime report, the author decides to write about the people. The people we learn about are the killers, Dick and Perry, and the murdered family, the Clutters. The author describes how each family was and makes the portrayals of Dick and Perry’s family different from the Clutters.The portrayal of the Clutters and of Dick and Perry’s families, was used to describe what the American Dream was for each character. In the beginning we learn about what type of family the Clutters were and how they represented the American Dream for the people of Holcomb.