The Universe Will Always Finds A Way To Surprise Us

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote narrates the story of the multiple murder of the Clutter family in 1959. The morning of November 15 th, 1959, the Clutter family was found dead at their home in Holcomb, Kansas. When Nancy Clutter's friends, Nancy Ewalt and Susan Kidwell, came knocking on the residence on Sunday morning since they had expected to find the family asleep, not dead. Later that day, the local Sheriff and the Sheriff from Garden City came over to prepare investigations and to test the bodies. Both Herb and Kenyon´s bodies were found in the house's basement and Bonnie and Nancy´s bodies were found in each of their rooms. After these events, three of Herb´s closest friends decided to clean the house and burn everything that had a trace of blood in it. The three friends then remembered the good times they shared with Herb and realize that everything in life can end in the blink of an eye. Most of the Clutter's relatives travel to Holcomb to attend the family´s funeral, in which more than a thousand people are present. One of the Clutter older daughters decides to get married in Holcomb three days after the tragedy. To help find the murderers of this case, a team of detectives from Kansas are hired to find the killers.

Approximately four hundred miles east from Garden City, Kansas, Perry Smith and Richard Eugene “Dick” Hickock were sharing a booth in a diner at Kansas City. Perry tells his companion about the various articles he has read in the newspaper concerning the crime they committed. The duo then start to doubt if they are completely sane or if there is something wrong with the both of them since they committed such a horrible crime. They steal some clothes, sell two TV sets illegally, and drive off to Mexico; where they cross the border without problem and start a new life the United States was never able to offer them.

“ ‘It's all the same in eternity. Just remember: If one bird carried every grain of sand, grain by grain, across the ocean, by the time he got them all on the other side, that would only be the beginning of eternity. So blow your nose.’ ” (Capote, 69)

Mrs. Clare is a widow whose husband passed away seven months and twelve days before she made this statement to Capote while he was writing In Cold Blood. Just like society has different ideas of life after death, or heaven, or hell; we all have different ideas of eternity. Mrs. Clare makes it very clear that death is not something to be played with, and that when your time comes; nothing will save you. This woman does not pity the Clutters nor did she cry over their deaths, she believes that everything is bound to happen and that death is inevitable. Mrs. Clare thinks that, when we die, eternity begins and our lives are forgotten. I disagree. We are all worth something, even if we think we are not. Perhaps our lives won't matter a million years into the future, but we will always have the present (and the past). I think that eternity is not necessarily about our existence after death, but maybe something beyond that. Somewhere beyond religion and beliefs and our universe, somewhere where forever can last for a minute, and nothing can change that; not even me (and not even you). 

“That was a riddle that Perry had pondered. He felt he'd solved it, but the solution, while simple, was also somewhat hazy: ‘No. Because once a thing is set to happen, all you can do is hope it won't. Or will- depending. As long as you live, there's always something waiting, and even if it's bad, and you know it's bad, what can you do? You can't stop living.’ ” (Capote, 92)

Perry Smith is scared that both Dick and him might get caught because of the crime they committed back in Kansas. Unlike Perry, Dick doesn't think about the fact that he might end up in a cell in jail again, he thinks the plan has no flaws. Perry is realistic, he understands that the world is not just sunshine and butterflies. Dick on the other side, believes that no one can harm him and that he'll get away with everything he does, even he is a murderer himself. Perry knows that, even if they get caught, his life won't stop. Dick does not reach this conclusion, stubborn as always, Dick is convinced that actions have no consequences (good or bad). They have eachother's back though, they are good friends and they certainly know how do things right (even if they are wrong).

This movie is about getting to know yourself and accepting how our perspectives may change along the years, but that doesn´t mean we should stop enjoying our lives.

This book has been nothing like I expected it to be so far. The book offers so much background information for both the family's relationships with people in the town and the killers´ childhood stories that the author leaves no doubts for the readers. I expect the story to continue with the killers´  persecution and, maybe, their arrest. I actually hope that everything can go back to normal in Holcomb, Kansas. It is such a small town that when an event so extraordinary like a murder happened, the people didn't know how to react. I also hope that Dick and Perry´s reasons for murdering the Clutter family are revealed later on the book. It would be a shame for these reasons to remain unrevealed since I don't think any murder case is complete without some psychological background. So far, this book is a vivid example of how tragedy can strike in the most unusual time, and to the most unusual people.  

Just Like The Old Times

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote narrates the story of the multiple murder of the Clutter family in 1959. Capote starts the book by introducing the village of Holcomb, Kansas. It stands on the wheat plains of western Kansas about seventy miles outside of the Colorado border. The owner of the River Valley Farm was Herbert William Clutter, a forty-eight year old man that stood just under five feet ten inches and was a Methodist. His wife,

Bonnie Fox, sadly suffered of clinical depression and would more often than not have nervous attacks and would have to get treatment at the Wesley Medical Center. The couple had three daughters and a son. The eldest daughters had left town to study or to live with families of their own. Still living at Holcomb, fifteen year old Kenyon and sixteen year old Nancy both enjoyed the seclusion of the town and lived happily with their parents. Town darling Nancy, was dating Bobby Rupp; the school basketball hero (who would be later interviewed in order to give evidence to the competent authorities about his girlfriend's murder).

Unlike the Clutter family, Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene “Dick” Hickock weren't admired in a community since, sadly, they weren't part of any community. Both men had shared a cell at Kansas State Penitentiary and were now on their way to Holcomb, to commit a crime that would ultimately end their lives, as well as four others. Unlike criminals with a mediocre understanding of the world that are usually depicted in novels and movies, Perry Smith was a literature lover; a poet himself. Dick on the other side, was the father of three children and had been married twice, and had got a divorce twice (not to mention half an hour late to his meeting with Perry but had an IQ of 130 based on an average of 90-110 nevertheless). At the invitation of Dick to rob a family in Holcomb and then flee to Mexico, Perry was more than delighted to start a new life and the night of November 15, 1959; the two convicts advanced towards the Clutter´s residence in a black Chevrolet.

“You are a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quite sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity. You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you learn to control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you. The flaw? Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occasion. Why? Why this unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy or content, this growing contempt for people and the desire to hurt them? All right, you think they're fools, you despise them because their morals, their happiness is the source of your frustration and resentment. But these are dreadful enemies you carry within yourself--in time destructive as bullets. Mercifully, a bullet kills its victim.” (Capote, 43-44)

This quote is an excerpt from the farewell letter that Willie-Jay, the only person who Perry thinks ever understood him,  wrote to Perry the day of his departure from jail. I think that this quote tells the reader a lot about not only the type of person Perry is but also about his relationship with his friends, or, in this case; the lack of them. This quote also made me see Perry as a very resentful man with anger issues, but I also think he sums up the basis of human behavior and emotions. He wants to hurt people even though he doesn't have an apparent reason to do so (perhaps that is why he murdered four people that he'd never spoken a word to in his whole life). We are all resentful and feel as if someone else's happiness is the source of our grievance, even if we don't admit it. The unusual thing about Perry is that he does admit it. He was generally bothered by human nonsense and actually tells Dick about his bad habit of wanting everyone to speak with a correct grammar. I also think that this quote is trying to tell us that, although self- destruction and self-expression shouldn't depend on each other, they do (sadly). Perry Smith is just a little bit broken and maybe a little bit lost but, truth is, we all are.

This movie is about a girl who feels lost and can´t express
herself. To find herself, she escapes from her town but leaves
clues to a friends of hers.

“Then, touching the brim of his cap, he headed for home and the day's work, unaware that it would be his last.” (Capote, 13)

Capote uses this quote to describe Herb Clutter's last day of life, and he couldn't have been more right. I think that we will never know if we'll be doing something for the last time until it is too late. We will never know if the last time we see a person is actually the last time they will see us, or anyone. I also think that this quote is very realistic since none of us know when we will die or how it will happen and, if you think about it too much, is actually scary. I just hope that Herb was satisfied with his life since it ended so suddenly but, was Herb Clutter truly happy with his lifestyle? Was he proud of his achievements? Was he ashamed of his accomplishments, whatever they may have been?

I was honestly taken aback by this book. I would not usually read non-fiction books but this book is definitely making me change my mind about the genre. The only guess that I can make from this point of the book is that on later chapters, Capote will narrate the actual murder of the Clutter family. Something else that I absolutely liked about this book is the fact that Truman Capote dedicated this book to Harper Lee who is the author of To Kill A Mockingbird. I was surprised when I found that these two were friends back when Capote was alive (he died in 1984). I genuinely have no clue of what can happen next, the Clutter family were very respected within the community and were admired as well but their success as individuals and as a whole would ultimately lead to their deaths. I know that the Clutter family is going to die in the next pages but what will happen to Perry and Dick? How long will it be until they get caught? How long will it be until they get killed?