The text I choose to use is "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote.
I believe that Truman Capote's purpose, audience and structure all affect one another. There are many speculations as to what the purpose of writing this book was. Capote wanted to create an unbiased, non-fiction novel that mocked modern journalism's lack of literary talent. Perhaps Capote wanted the readers of The New Yorker to broaden their horizons to a place outside of the big city or perhaps he wanted wanted to share his stance on the death penalty. The structure of this book encompasses and emphasizes the purpose of this book. If Capote's purpose was to show big city folk a world outside their own, that crimes and death happen elsewhere and that these towns are not always able to shake them off. The way that Capote goes into great detail about the town of Holcomb and the people living there is to prove that purpose.
"The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call "out there." Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West. The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heeled boots with pointed toes. The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them."
If Capote's purpose was to oppose the death penalty, he structured the book by showing the background of Dick and Perry. You can tell by the lengthy descriptions and anecdotes of Perry that Capote truly wanted his audience to see that he wasn't just a cold blooded killer, but that he was a person that had had a terrible life and was probably very mentally sick.
One could impose that the way he structures the book, and how he divides up the amount of detail and description per topic could rank which was Capote's true purpose. Whether it be showing New Yorkers a new place or showing the injustice of the death penalty, he certainly made an impact on people by writing this book. Whether it truly was a non-fiction novel or not.
In this blog learning outcome 1 was put into consideration of how the audience and purpose affects the structure and content. I believe that Katie was right when she analyzed In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and made the assessment that these factors were all inexplicably related. I also agree with the purpose and audience she believed to be true when Truman wrote his novel. The quote that she picked showed a great example of how Capote kept audience and purpose in consideration when he wrote his piece. For example the way he described Holcomb in the way that he did. Most of his readers had never been far out in a community like that of Holcomb. That’s why Capote structured his piece with imagery and diction as shown in the quote. Thus proves Katie’s point.
ReplyDeleteThe fact about Truman Capote is that he was someone who was always involved in things that were a bit out of the ordinary. Capote’s “In Cold Blood” was something that he himself as a writer thought of as a ‘new genre.’ He took this true story of a murder and made into a novel. He claimed that his objective in writing this book was unbiased, though many felt that there was a strong connection between Perry and Capote. Capote’s audience could have been strictly for big city folks and journalist. Since Capote was obsessed with extremes it could be said that he could’ve written this to show that he is better than a lot of other writers; especially those who just stuck with pure facts. That’s why after the book was published he felt that he deserved more attention; he thought that it deserved more publicity. Truman Capote was very good at getting into detail; he was very descriptive which is why it could be easily said that this book wasn’t completely unbiased. From Capote’s diction to the way he structured his sentences he fulfilled his purpose of expanding the audience’s horizons.
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