"In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

There are two things that I absolutely savor about the holidays: the time to do morning workouts and the time to read.

So, today is the day after Thanksgiving, and I have enjoyed every moment of this day. I woke up early and talked to my momma on the phone, went to Barnes and Nobel, ran six miles, and spent the rest of the day reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. What Joy!

I must admit that this book left me feeling really crazy and in deep thought about life, death, the act of killing, the death penalty etc.

Truman Capote is quite dear to my heart, because we were both raised in Alabama. Capote and Nelle Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird, were both raised in Monroeville, Alabama. (Great things DO come from Alabama.)

In Cold Blood is the TRUE story of two ex-convicts, Dick and Perry, who went to Kansas to kill a family whom they didn't know. The family was the well-respected Clutter family: Herbert, the father; Bonnie, the mother; Nancy, the daughter; and Kenyon, the son.

While in prison, another convict told Dick about the Clutter family. He told him that Mr. Clutter was rich and kept a safe with money in his house. Dick decided that once he was released, he and his friend Perry, would drive across the state of Kansas, to the Clutter's home, and rob them.

However, once they got to the house, Perry and Dick realized that there was no safe, and they were only able to retrieve between $40 and $50 from the family. Things took a BAD turn, and all four members of the Clutter family, who were in the house, were killed; Mr. Clutter 's throat was slashed, and the rest of the family was shot in the head. (The Clutter's had two older daughters who did not live with them.)

Capote spent years, alone with Nelle Harper Lee, interviewing the killers and the people in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas in order to give the reader snapshots into the Clutters' lives and the minds of the killers.

This novel really disturbed me. I live a carefree life, and I am cautious but fearless. I go out at anytime by myself and feel pretty safe. I refuse to live in fear, but I needed to be reminded of the fact that people like Dick and Perry do exist in this world.

Also, Dick and Perry both were sentenced to death, and this made me think a lot about the death penalty. I spent a summer at Amherst College studying Crime and Punishment. We discussed  the death penalty at great length, and I am not sure if it the death penalty should or should not be considered a cruel and unusual punishment if you believe that death starts at the moment that a person finds out that he has been sentenced to death. Can you imagine the agony that a person must go through when he knows the exact day and time that he is going to die?

Things that make you say hmmmmmmmm......

This book is captivating, easy to read, very revealing about the minds of two killers, and it will make a person think.

 "It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature."  Henry James

Truman Capote

"Pride and Prejudice" and Jane Austen

I am little embarrassed to admit that being a high school English teacher for quite a long while, I had not read Pride and Prejudice. There are teachers of English, and other readers, who absolutely swear by this book, but I must admit, I had never read it. Not quite sure why not, but I hadn't.

A few of my students read Pride and Prejudice and strongly suggested that I read it, and I did.

Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in 1797. That was not a typo; it was written in 1797. It was unacceptable for women to be writers during this time period, so Pride and Prejudice was published anonymously and was not associated with Jane until after her death. Oh my!!!

This novel shows the life of the privileged class during the 18th and 19th-century England.

There are many definitions for the word Pride, but the definition that I think is befitting for this novel is a "haughty attitude shown by somebody who believes, often unjustifiably, that he or she is better that others." This can be applied to one of the main characters, Mr. Darcy. He was a single, rich man whose parents "thought that they were good themselves, allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing - to care for none beyond my own family circle, to think meanly of the world...." In spite of  his upbringing, he, quiet as it is kept, was actually a good fellow.

A befitting definition of Prejudice would be a "preformed opinion, usually an unfavorable one, based on insufficient knowledge, irrational feelings, or inaccurate stereotypes." This could be applied to Elizabeth Bennett, one of the main characters who was from a lower-class family.

So, reading this book with my 21st century women's liberation lenses, I could not understand why Mrs. Bennet was so pressed to get her four daughters married, and not just married, but married to men who were well-off. (Now, we all know that money does not hurt.)

However, after talking about the novel with my students, I realized that the Bennet's had no sons, and women could not own property, not even inherited property, during this time period. Once Mr. Bennet dies, their house will go to a male cousin. So, the girls needed to be married in order to secure their future and the future of their mother just in case she died after their father. Imagine that!!!!

On a side note, I believe in marriage and all of that, but I am so thrilled that I do not HAVE to be married to own property or to secure my future or the security of my family. We've come a long way or have we?

So, this novel is basically about rich Mr. Darcy and poor Elizabeth who really like each other but pride and prejudice gets in the way. Once they worked through this and saw each other for who they really were, they were able to marry and hopefully, live happily ever after.

There are many ways that an author can develop a character: showing the character's appearance, displaying the character's actions, revealing the character's thoughts, letting the character speak, and getting the reactions of others.

Jane Austen's does a great job of developing her characters through their actions. The only sort of problem with this method is that these stories typically seem to move slowly and may not hold the reader's attention.

So, the beginning of Pride and Prejudice may seem to move slowly with lots of details, but she ties everything together very nicely which actually makes for a satisfying ending if you love the idea of love like I do :)

This is a classic novel that deserves the title of classic!!!!