The End...

For time’s sake, I’m going to wrap up the last two sections of the book into one blog post. The Corner is the final piece of the novel in which we find out information about the trials of the two men and their convictions. As you could have anticipated, both men were put on death row, or “The Corner” as it in referred to (clever title Capote).

                What I felt was most interesting to read about these sections was the way both men handled their jail time. Dick was perfectly calm, smoking and reading erotic novels and Perry just wrote in his journal. While they both had thoughts of escape, as any person would being locked in a room, I found it odd that neither really protested their predicament. Even when they were sentenced to death, Dick said he accepted his fate and has no hard feelings, and while Perry is against it, he apologizes. These were not the reactions I was expecting.

                Also, Capote continues to tell the story the same way he has throughout the novel: only giving the information through the descriptions of the characters, careful not to tell it through his words. However, there is one moment in the novel when Capote does implement his own opinion. During the trial, the psychologist on the stand is cut off from saying something, and Capote fills in what he believes she was going to say, and that is that Perry was a paranoid schizophrenic. Now, in some cases, people who are deemed insane, or who were unfit to make their own choices during a crime are sometimes given a different sentence than if they were not prescribed this way. No one will ever know if this was the case for Perry. However, it is clear that in this instance, Capote was still trying to gain the reader’s sympathy for Perry, as he had more subtly throughout the rest of the book. In this way, I agree with Kelly below when she feels slighted by Capote. He wanted to write the honest truth about a case and remain as unbiased as he could, but he was unable to do so because of his relationship with Perry. He slips up and with this he alludes to all of the other times throughout the novel where this is the case. How can he be trusted as an author is he was a player in the game?

                Overall though, I did really enjoy this book. While all of his claims and insights may not be trustworthy, Capote does an excellent job of telling the story and keeping the mystery alive throughout. To be honest, I believe both men got what they deserved for their crimes, and am glad I know the whole story of what happened to the Clutter’s on that fateful night.