Filed under: Uncategorized
Grace Hagenson
Ms. Robinson
AP English 3
01 August 2007
Life Imprisonment vs. The Death Penalty
The death penalty is as hotly debated a topic as abortion and stem cell research. Of course it is, for all these issues deal with the one most sacred thing: a person’s life. Most people who claim to be against the death penalty say “he/she should be locked up for the rest of his/her life, so they can think about what they’ve done.” Most people that claim to be for the death penalty say “a person capable of committing such a horrendous crime as murder often has no conscience, no regrets.”
I have chewed over these two viewpoints quite a bit, for sentencing someone to death is no light matter. In the past, I have leaned towards the “he-should-think-about-what-he’s-done” viewpoint, because a person that has taken another life should undoubtedly suffer. However, I have recently come to the conclusion that, as in the Hickock/Smith case, many murderers are sociopaths, and will not suffer one bit pondering the crime they have committed. Perry said, “Am I sorry? If that’s what you mean—I’m not. I don’t feel anything about it. I wish I did. But nothing about it bothers me a bit. Half an hour after it happened, Dick was making jokes and I was laughing at them. Maybe we’re not human. I’m human enough to feel sorry for myself.” (290-291) I have a stong suspicion that most murderers feel the same way. I absolutely, 100%, believe that Perry Smith and Dick Hickock got what they deserved. In cases of cold blooded murder, murders such as those of the Clutters, the death penalty serves justice to the lives stolen.
Also, many people that are sentenced to life imprisonment somehow escape the confines of jail. “This is especially true since in Kansas there is no such thing as life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Persons sentenced to life imprisonment actually serve, on the average, less then fifteen years.” (258) If murderers do not get out on parole or escape, you and I are spending money every day in taxes for his/her food and water. Why should we pay to keep them alive? As Nancy Reagan once said, “I believe that people would be alive today if it were for the death penalty.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
Grace Hagenson
Ms. Robinson
AP English 3
01 August 2007
Oh please, lock your doors!
As I was reading In Cold Blood, I constantly had to remind myself that the book was actually nonfiction. Capote wrote the novel in such an incredible fashion that, despite what readers already knew the ending to be, it kept people on the edge of their seats. Just how did Truman Capote do it? Well there are several factors that contribute to Capote’s utterly captivating choice of writing.
Capote ingeniously wrote the novel using montage. The “sections” in the book switched back and forth, from the Clutters’ normal lives, to the killers’ activities that led up to the dreadful drive down the River Valley Farm driveway.
Although I knew the outcome of the book, some part of me just wanted to scream, “Lock your doors!” It is a horrible feeling, knowing that this family is already dead, yet wanting to save them at the same time. The killers slowly creep forward and the Clutters’ innocently go about their normal habits. Up until the point when the killer pointed and shot the gun, I half expected the Clutter family to escape. I knew the horrible fate that awaited the Clutter family, but they didn’t. This dramatic irony created by the montage was almost more than I could take, but I was very much intrigued.
After reading about the murders, Capote still manages to build suspense. He doesn’t reveal what really happened in that house until the very end of the book. I was determined to find out. Could these two men seriously have taken four lives for a mere fifty dollars? It couldn’t be so, I decided, and so I read on.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Grace Hagenson
Ms. Robinson
AP English 3
01 August 2007
Closer to Home
Holcomb is the town in which no one would expect such a monstrousity to occur, and for that very same reason, is the very place where such a crime is destined to take place. The scene is set. Holcomb is a quiet, religious town. Everyone minds their own business; however, they secretly mind everyone else’s too. Nothing out of the ordinary happens in Holcomb; the exciting gossip encompasses a new marriage or a new adultery rumor. There is no underground drug market and there are certainly no gangs. Sure, there might be a town drunk and some neighborhood punks, but not enough for the citizens to lock their doors. If it wasn’t for two men that were in way over their heads, Holcomb would be a name that not I, nor any other small towner, would ever have heard of.
I can speak with such expertise because I happen to live in a town that is very much like Holcomb. Everyone knows each other. The police officers are well known, as are the wealthy families. There has never been a scare big enough to excite Carteret County residents to deadbolt their doors.
Truman Capote paints a clear picture of this small Kansas city town, and while doing so, describes many towns across the United States. One reason Capote goes into such measure to describe the setting is for the shock that people feel when they realize how alike Holcomb is to their own towns. If it happened in Holcomb, why not Cedar Point? Moreover, when reading the novel, one can visualize the town– complete with the River Valley Farm, Teacherage, and Courthouse. With a visual of the town in mind, the full horror of the tragedy seeps into a readers soul.
