In Cold Blood AO3

Question 1

What literary genre is ICB?

Answer 1

A non-fiction novel.

Question 2

What is a non-fiction novel?

Answer 2

A non-fiction novel is a novel which presents the events of real life through the use of literary techniques generally associated with fiction.

Question 3

Describe the narrative voice of ICB

Answer 3

There is no specific narrative voice, instead presents the events through different character’s perspectives

Question 4

What did Capote use to create the narrative?

Answer 4

Newspaper accounts, investigative reports, letters and interviews

Question 5

How was the story originally published?

Answer 5

As a four part series in the New Yorker in September 25th 1965, it was published as a book in 1966

Question 6

What were some key elements of crime fiction?

Answer 6

Element of mystery/suspense
Clearly outlined motive
Murderer
Body
Clearly defined boundaries of good and bad
Follow the detective and observe the investigation as it unfolds

Question 7

What does the plot of crime fiction reflect?

Answer 7

The social concerns of the time. It will indicate what social and cultural values are as a boundary has been crossed when a crime is committed

Question 8

What was the golden age?

Answer 8

A boom in popularity of crime fiction during the 1920s-30s

Question 9

What were some features of hard boiled crime fiction?

Answer 9

Realistic
A tough private eye
Generally set in the USA
Sleuth isolated from society 
Protagonists are usually solitary with a strong moral code 
Graphic sex and violence 
Urban backgrounds 
The detective drives the plots

Question 10

What were the realists view on crime fiction?

Answer 10

The reader is introduced to the crime and perpetrator at the beginning of the story
The realists used believable settings, carefully constructed and reflected society

Question 11

Define caper story

Answer 11

A subgenre of crime fiction. The typical caper story typically involves one or more crimes typically theft perpetrated in full view of the reader. A subplot as part of the main plot.

Question 12

Amateur detective

Answer 12

Someone who is a detective as a hobby rather than a job

Question 13

Police detective

Answer 13

A member of the police force who investigates

Question 14

“Fair play” rule

Answer 14

Giving the reader enough opportunity to solve the crime before the master sleuth reveals the truth

Question 15

Modus operandi

Answer 15

How a criminal kills the victim

Question 16

Psychopathology

Answer 16

Scientific study of mental disorders

Question 17

Ratiocination

Answer 17

A reasoned trail of thought

Question 18

Red herring

Answer 18

False clue or evidence that is intentionally misleading

Question 19

Serial criminal

Answer 19

Someone who commits more than one crime

Question 20

Suspect

Answer 20

Someone who has motive to commit the crime

Question 21

Evidence

Answer 21

Information which tells you if a belief or proposition is true or valid

Question 22

Circumstantial evidence

Answer 22

Indictive but not conclusive, relies on inference to connect it to a fact

Question 23

alibi

Answer 23

A claim/piece of evidence that one was somewhere else when the crime took place

Question 24

corpus dilecti

Answer 24

latin for body of the crime- actual body to prove the crime was committed

Question 25

Clue

Answer 25

Anything that sheds light on the crime

Question 26

Lead

Answer 26

Someone who helps the investigation move forward

Question 27

Pre meditation

Answer 27

Planning a crime beforehand, shows intent

Question 28

Motive

Answer 28

Reason why they committed the crime

Question 29

Victim

Answer 29

Someone who was hurt/killed by the crime

Question 30

Habeas corpus

Answer 30

a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention

Question 31

When were the Clutters murdered?

Answer 31

1959

Question 32

When were Dick and Perry hung?

Answer 32

April 1965 after 5 years on death row

Question 33

Modus operandi

Answer 33

How a criminal kills the victim

Question 34

Ratiocination

Answer 34

A reasoned trail of thought

Question 35

Amateur detective

Answer 35

Someone who is a detective as a hobby rather than a job

Question 36

What did Dewey say about Capote’s theories of who killed the Clutters?

Answer 36

‘Truman felt that Smith really did kill all four. Smith was more of the killer type. He didn’t think Hickock had the intestinal fortitude to do it.’

Question 37

What did Nye say about Capote and Perry?

Answer 37

‘They had became lovers in the penitentiary. I can’t prove it, but they spent a lot of time up there in the cell, he spent a considerable amount of money briding the guard to go around the corner’

Question 38

What did Capote say about Perry’s reasons for killing the Clutters?

Answer 38

‘he suddenly found himself (in the Clutter house that night) in this psychological cul de sac. The Clutters were a perfect set of symbols for every frustration in his life.’

Question 39

What did Ned Rorem say after a dinner with Capote in 1963?

Answer 39

‘He told us about the book- a non fiction novel he called it- and at one point said, “But it can’t be published until they’re executed, so I can hardly wait.”

Question 40

What did James Post (the Chaplain) say about Dick?

Answer 40

‘I said his dad wasn’t the sex fiend Capote tried to make him out…like trying to rape the Clutter girl before he killed her…it didn’t happen. And other things…lies, just to make a better story.’

Question 41

What did the legal delays mean for Capote?

Answer 41

The legal delays also meant that he could work on the narrative of the crime itself and the detective work leading to the capture of the killers, but he had no conclusion to the killers’ story until such time as the state of Kansas decided their ultimate fate through a series of appeals.

Question 42

What was the 1950s like in America?

Answer 42

1950s American society was marked by an expanding middle class, confident consumer spending, and the early development of American suburbia. Having emerged from its involvement in World War II, America was eager to focus on the proliferation of an affluent middle class at home. The popularization of the automobile and advertising through television and magazines revolutionized American households.

Question 43

America was marked by…

Answer 43

social conservatism and conformity