Truman Capote
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Truman Capote is not only known for his widely known novel, In Cold Blood but he is also supposedly responsible for the new style of writing referred to as non-fictional, or new journalism. Capote states that instead of writing simply a journalistic recounting of observable facts, he would understand the people and research the individuals involved so well that he could understand and develop them as characters, thereby combining the techniques of both journalism and literature. It would be based on a realistic events and people, however some details, events, and people would be non-fictional. In his novel, the events and the Clutter family were are real, however the ending of the novel and certain parts were completely made up which makes it hard for readers to examine and believe the accuracy of his claims. Did he really combine journalism and literature together to form a new style or genre of writing? I believe in a way he did.
Truman Capote in my opinion cam up with a narrative form that employed all the techniques of fictional art but was nevertheless immaculately factual. Capote came across the Clutter murder while reading the New York Times one morning, and began intrigued and decided that this crime and storyline would be the basis of the book he was trying to write, the non-fictional novel. Capote and Harper Lee set out to Kansas to begin the soon to be famous novel. I believe Capote captured the true aspect of journalism because he and Lee went to the place of the crime and actually researched and investigated to get all the facts they needed. It took them awhile to be completely accepted in the town but once they were, they began to interview people and take notes of their findings. They interviewed anyone that might give them any information or background on the Clutters including friends of the Clutters, churchgoers, business owners, neighbors, acquaintances, Mr. Bell who picked up Dick and Perry, etc. Capote did months of comparative research on murder, murderers, the criminal mentality, and he interviewed quite a number of murderers to give him a perspective on Dick and Perry. Then he began to research the aspect of crime and all the factors related to it. These aspects are all forms of true journalism and Capote used all these real facts and information to write the novel. Almost everything was factual and a direct representation of the actual event. However Capote did add certain little pieces into the novel, which were complete dramatic scenes that were created by Capote from notes he took during interviews. The part in which the schoolteacher tells exactly what happened from the moment they got to the house, and what they found there is exactly from his memory and what actually happened. It came from him directly. In the same first chapter theres a scene between the postmistress and her mother when the mother reports that the ambulances have gone to the Clutter house. Thats a straight dramatic