The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo and In Cold Blood by Truman Caopte

Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood (1963), implies that the death penalty should only be used as a last resort.

The essay “A Hanging” by George Orwell speaks to the reader about the author’s stance on capital punishment. I believe that Orwell was able to communicate his point, without actually saying I’m against capital punishment, through three steps. The first step is to set the mood and bring you into his perspective. From the dreary description of the morning to the slow procession of the condemned man to the gallows, Orwell puts the reader in a mood that conveys the experience of watching a man die. The second step is to compare himself to the condemned man, showing how we are all equal. A life is a life, whether you are a condemned man or not. The third step is to show how everyone tries to cope with the aftermath of the execution. This

Literature, the dictionary defines it being the art of written works that is simultaneously designed to entertain, educate and instruct its audience; writers, using their skill of telling stories, use literature in an attempt to transfer their ideas from paper to the reader; for some, this task means bringing their story to a different place and time that is entirely separate from what the could be perceive as ordinary, on order to serve the writer’s intent. With this, the impossible, becomes the probable, and the worst fear imagined becomes the breathed reality; with no separation between the truth, and fiction. The word “literature” in itself cannot be accurately defined, and by attempting to do so, it limits the word not only in its

The death penalty is something many people face each day . There is approximately 1,188 people that were executed in the U.S from 1977 through 2009 . There are many ways on how to execute someone, but primarily we use the lethal injection. The way people are trailed and put on the death penalty, is because of the involvement with first degree of murder, or other crimes. Proponents say that the death penalty is an important tool for preserving law and order. They also argue a term “an eye for an eye” which means that it helps the families grieving, and ensure that they don’t release back to the public for future tragedy. The people against the death penalty say that it is wrong to take a human life, and has no effect on crime. Many of the death row inmates prefer death over life in prison. They say that many death row inmates have been volunteering for their executions. Over 75 inmates have volunteered for their death sentence. This is called a state-assisted suicide. Many inmates said that they would rather gamble on being executed than having life parole. Many inmates say that they spend over a decade awaiting execution. Some prisoners have been in death row for 20 years. They usually are isolated from other prisoners and spend as much as 23 hours alone in their cells. The two punishments they receive other than the death penalty is the living conditions they live in prison. They are usually in a state where they would be executed and,

In In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the device of juxtaposition is used to contrast the differing mental states of Dick and Perry, which is emphasized by the syntax, diction, and tone throughout the two passages. Capote uses opposing accounts of the same situation to add a deeper characterization of the two men, and to emphasize their differences psychologically. Throughout the book Capote attempts to show the true complexity of the killers, and how their backgrounds and psyches affected their actions. Although Capote is talking in the third person omniscient, he changes his style when describing the two characters.

Have you ever heard of the Insanity Defense? The insanity defense is when the defendant is not responsible for his or her actions because of a psychiatric disease or a psychotic episode during the act of the crime. For instance, the Durham rule can be used if the defendant is diagnosed with a mental illness that was present during the time or show his or hers medical history records to demonstrate the defendant’s insanity. In the book In Cold Blood, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, was sentenced to death for the murder of the Clutter Family, on November 15, 1959. Perry, who was the one that killed the whole family,could be eligible for the insanity plea if he has shown any signs of being mentally unstable during the act of the crime.

I would also like to compliment Capote’s use of tone in his book In Cold Blood because it was such a masterpiece of different rhetorical strategies and his use of tone seems very prominent to me. Especially the tone he uses for Perry Smith. The way he conveys Perry confuses me and really makes me question what Perry actually felt if he did indeed feel. Perry was smart but comes off very psychopathic and Capote conveys it with such an artistic style that it really elucidated who Perry appears to be. You can see Perry’s psychopathic tendencies in such areas as (386) “Perry Smith, who had shot and killed the whole family. He said he’d lied about it because, in his words, ‘I wanted to fix Dick for being such a coward. Dropping his guts all over the goddam floor.’ And the reason he’d decided to set the record straight wasn’t that he suddenly felt any kinder toward Hickock. According to him he was doing it out of consideration for Hickock’s parents—said he was sorry for Dick’s mother. Said, ‘She’s a real sweet person. It might be some comfort to her to know Dick never pulled the trigger.” As you can see he appears to be uncompassionate until you read

The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel and the allegorical novella Animal Farm by George Orwell have both rightfully earned the many reactions and views the readers have towards the descriptions and recollections written within these classics. Least to say, both are deep and invoke strong sentimental reactions towards what you learn from them. Though many differences show themselves in the books, such as how Animal Farm is more about the events leading up to and during the Russian Revolution while Night is leaning more towards the horrendous events that happened during the Second World War, many similarities also make an appearance. For example, the Jews in Sighet were, for the most part, hopeful and were in denial of what was happening around them throughout the range of events. Also, at the end of each story, there were identification issues, for lack of better term, with the characters.

Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell and Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol are prophetic social commentaries which explore the broad social wrong of a totalitarian government. Both texts depict a futuristic, dystopian society in which individuality is destroyed in favour of faceless conformity. Niccol and Orwell through the experiences of their protagonists reflect the impact isolation from society has on individuals. The authors of both texts also use their protagonists Winston, who cannot understand the rhetoric of the government party and Vincent, who is trapped, unable to achieve his dreams because of his imperfect genome, to demonstrate individual rebellion against society and explore the significant social injustices of a

Although Capote’s writing may seem as though he is trying to relive the storyline of the murder, he is using language tools in order to build sympathy and humanize the murderers despite their gruesome crime while simultaneously making the reader feel sorrow for the Clutter’s.

Capote builds sympathy for Perry to successfully express his view on capital punishment. Capote is against the death penalty, describing the system of appeals as a “slow cruel contest,” or “a game of chance” where a criminal's execution date is constantly being pushed back (Capote 330). Throughout the novel, Capote incorporates numerous details regarding Perry’s life, which was filled with hardship, mistreatment and neglect. This information convinces the reader that Perry, as well as his crime, is just a result of his environment. Perry confirms this belief when he states, “Maybe it’s just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it” (Capote 302).

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood makes a great case for justice in relation to death. In the book, two criminals, Dick and Perry, worked together to murder the Clutters. They got caught and trial, however at the time Kansas maximum incarceration was life imprisonment with parole and most prisoners are paroled after twenty years. Twenty years of imprisonment for brutally killing four members of the most influential family in the area, causing mass hysteria for everyone in Holcomb and for others who are involved in the case is unquestionably too short. However, is the death penalty fair for both of them, considering Dick had a mental disorder and Perry had a terrible upbringing? This brings us to a bigger, broader question: to what extent does the law and judgement system achieve their main purpose: bringing justice to everyone?

Holcomb, Kansas, appears to display rickety, ramshackled buildings lining a dusty, arid street to consist of the downtown area, according to Truman Capote’s depiction of the town in his novel, In Cold Blood. Nothing stops in Holcomb, with the exception of rare freight trains. Capote, while describing the town as boring, old, and dry, focuses his positive attributes towards the center of education in the town. Holcomb’s school stands out like a needle in a haystack to the rest of Holcomb, with its polished walls and modernized interior. Capote utilizes imagery and diction to accurately illustrate to his readers the layout of Holcomb and the people who reside there.

Widely considered to be one of the most powerful and engaging pieces in the history of modern American literature, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood tells the true story of the gruesome murder of the Clutter family during the late 1950s. The novel not only recalls the factual events of the case by incorporating real dialogue and documents, but also focuses on the lives of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, the two men who committed the crime. As the novel progresses, Capote concentrates on the dynamics of the relationship between the killers, contrasting the differences between highly intelligent but ill-tempered Dick, and Perry, who was abused and abandoned as a child. Their divergence in actions and manners are exemplified by Capote’s writing styles

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury and the film V for Vendetta by James McTeigue, there are a different range of features of their text type which explore the common theme of individuality against oppression. A fascist government occupies London after a world war in V for Vendetta. Where V uses terrorist tactics to fight the dictators, after saving Evey from the secret police, he now discovers an ally in the battle against England’s corrupt government. Fahrenheit 451, set in the futuristic 24th century, tells the story of Guy Montag and his struggle with the censored society. Burning books as a living, he begins to question his occupation and joins an underground network of intellectuals to rebuild a literate and cultural