what did everyone think about this section?
for me, it was the ending I needed. it provided the rest of the answers, and gave justice for the clutter family. It was interesting to see the battle of thoughts and nice to know that not everyone thought the murderers should be sent to hang. I thought it gave some interesting perspectives, and was beneficial to include the actual court trial and the process it took.
read back on page 304-307 to see the debate and statement from Greene along with other opinions. pg 304 : " four of your fellow citizens were slaughtered like hogs in a pen. And for what reason? not out of vengeance or hatred. But for money" And how cheaply those lives were bought! for 10 dollars a life!" I like how Capote included Greene's words, because it really makes you feel as though you were in the court room, and makes any ounce of sympathy you feel towards the murderers disappear. You see the conflicting arguments of if the men should be placed on death row or not and a quote on page 306 reflects that. You can tell some feel sympathetic towards perry's hard life while others seem to ridicule it. "Maybe i drink too much but i sure as hell never killed 4 people in cold blood" (also reasoning for title) and "Yeah and how about hanging the bastard? thats pretty dam cold blooded too" (pg 306)
I was very interested when Capote told the story of other murders in the same prison as Perry and Dick because although seeming irrelevant at first, I took away the message that the other criminals awaiting death shared 2 common factors with Dick and Perry. 1.) They committed horrendous crimes with little reasoning at all, and 2.) they felt no TRUE remorse for their crimes.
I also thought the section about auctioning off the Clutter estate a year later, had a great impact and Capote including it sent the message, time may have passed but the town will never forget.
so what are your thoughts?
also i think Dick and Perry were pretty much doomed for death row. especially because the crime occurred in kansas. " death row sure is popular in Kansas, juries hand it out like they were giving candy to kids " -(page 322)
ReplyDeleteHaha great quote Heidi. But yes. This final Chapter was really an interesting one. It showed how Dick and Perry aren't the only "Crazies" out there. And yeah, the other stories of people who committed cold blooded murders really helped show what is wrong with some people.
ReplyDeleteBut another point, by hanging these people, thats just about as bad as what they did. So in a sense, everyone is wrong. It is wrong to kill, so by killing those who killed others, yes it seems like a punishment not worthy enough for what they did, but also. By killing them, aren't they just going down to their level? I mean, jail for life isn't a great idea either. But at least we aren't stooping to their level. In fact, its probably even worse because we are killing them, because thats what they did. Where they killed because of money. We killed because of a killing.
Anyone Disagree with this? Because I really believe that a hanging isn't the answer to the problem. It just creates our own. What it doesn't say, is what others were thinking after this happened. Those who still feel that they shouldn't have been hung. But I mean a slap on the wrist and a life imprisonment isn't enough to pay for what they did.