Well, I'll say it. Spoiler Alert: the Clutters are dead. It took about sixty pages, but it happened. And in a rather grisly manner too. Graphic Material Alert: I knew ahead of time that they were all shot point blank in the head with a shotgun, but I did not know that each of them had been tied up before their brains were blown out. And the macabre picture of the youngest daughter's blood splattered all over her white teddy bear is not a pleasant one.
Capote has decided to make note of a very interesting dynamic that developed in the town after the Clutters were murdered. Everyone became a suspect. Since there were so few clues left behind, everyone had to watch their back and keep an eye out and winder if they were next in line. The owner of a local cafe in the town, Bess Hartman had heard someone say that everyone was so anxious and paranoid because "All we've got out here are our friends. There isn't anything else". Few people actually pass through the town and most likely would have no motive for murdering the family, so it almost would have had to have been someone in the town.
The daughter's boyfriend Bobby Rupp was called in to be questioned. Was there some type of secret conflict there?
What about Alfred Stoecklein? A man who lived about a 100 yards from the Clutter family house. While he seems to have an alibi, it does seem awfully suspicious that he didn't hear four shots from a shotgun fired and he seems to have thought a lot about the wind direction and the location of the Clutter's barn that would have helped to deflect the noise.
Capote poses the question to us in the eyes of the towns people. We get a very strong sense that it was the characters Dick and Perry that did it, but there is no solid, in your face type of proof that screams "They are the murderers. They did it", in a clear, black and white manner.
But it also doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that the two prison convicts one of which had traveled 800 miles in the past twenty-four hours and the other who could be seen soaking his boots in a tub of warm, red-colored water were the ones involved.
Capote has left us in a sea of questions and wonders. What will be the next clue be and where will it be found? Who will be suspected because of it? What will become of the townspeople whose lives are now in quite a clutter (ba dum tiss)
I think it is interesting that the subject of the story (the murders) is just the beginning of the story. In most cases, the murders would be the climax of the story, but from what I gather from your blog, there is more to come. This is a traumatic situation for a small town, and obviously a conflict will be how to maintain the closeness, and feelings of safety that the inhabitants once had? How will the murderers be found? What will be their judgement? The fact that the murders aren't the main focus of the book is unique, in that it focuses on the psyche of the small town, and the townspeople. Will the real climax be the arrest of the killers? The court's decision on their guilt / innocence? Or will it be the conflict of the town itself?
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the books being very graphic, but at the same time it leaves a lot to the imagination. Much of it revolves around the reactions of the townspeople and we won't get a real rendition of the night of the murder until later in the book (hopefully). Although, it is really interesting to see these reactions and how everyone turns inward in a protective way, and against the people that they've known and trusted for years.
ReplyDeleteYour post about all the question Capote has left you with has, in turn, left me with my own questions. I have been reading a few posts on this blog, and for the most part, up to this point anyway, the fact that the Clutters were murdered at point blank range with a shot gun is the only thing anyone knows. From what I have read, it would appear that Capote is using these unknown facts to keep the reader in suspense. Larson, the author of the book I read, did this multiple times throught the story, throwing in a few random characters without explaining who they are up until the very end, where their purpose is finally revealed. Once this whole project is done, I'm probably going to start reading this book, because all these post are making me very interested in it.
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