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Analysis Of In Cold Blood, By Truman Capote

Decent Essays

In viewing the Movie, Capote I was very surprised at the tactics Truman Capote used to gain his qualitative research for his non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood. Prior to viewing this movie for this class, I had read this book and had seen the movie when it first came out. At that time, I felt as though both movie and book were wonderful, however when I viewed this movie with the knowledge I have gained thus far in this course I was bothered by how Truman conducted his research.
Inquiries of his research that came to my mind were how was his work without bias and rigor? Who tested the rigor of this study? Were the events he portrayed truly accurate? In the movie, he boasted about his memory level and never wrote anything down while interviewing. Perhaps his recollection of the events was not what he was told and was skewed to portray a more climatic interpretation of the events that took place.
The first ethical dilemma Truman faced with his research was that both Dick Hickock and Perry Smith were incarcerated. In today’s ethical principles this placed both men in a vulnerable group which there is an ethical standard to adhere to when using participants who are incarcerated. Polit and Beck (2017) discussed incarcerated subjects are vulnerable as their ability to make voluntary decisions to participate in the research may be affected because inmates have lost their autonomy and may feel that they cannot withhold consent. Capote never gave informed consent. Capote paid off

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