Capote's Influence of Events

Truman Capote

Capote

Michael Kronenwetter asserts that in every time and place, "all punishment is based on the same simple proposition: There must be a penalty for wrongdoing" (1). Yet, in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood as well as in the film Capote, the author/protagonist explores the concept of mercy, associated with the Christian concept of divine mercy and forgiveness, as he investigates the murder of a Midwest family and tries to get inside the minds of the accused killers. In his depiction of the unfolding of events throughout the trial, Capote interacts with several interested parties, from police to prosecutors to journalists and religious, showing how the murder and the trial is affecting everyone. However, his is one more voice in a sea of voices, and as Harper Lee points out, it was never Capote's intention to sway the courts towards mercy for the accused but rather to gather the sensational details of the event in order to collect fame for himself through the publication of his book: when Truman, reeling from the reality of the execution of the guilty turns to his friend Harper for solace, bemoaning his sense of futility, she responds with a devastating blow, "The fact is you didn't want to" save them (Miller). This paper will discuss how Harper's final words to Truman at the end of the film indicate that an alternate outcome might have been possible had Capote had more heart than ambition.

Capote's interest in the Midwest murder was due more to its odd sensationalism than to anything else: he wanted a story that would attract readers. What bothered him about the murder was not the coldness of it but rather the slowness of the plot: it took years for the story to unfold, for the final verdict to be handed down. During that time he painted a human picture of at least one of the defendants, who saw in Capote a sympathetic if somewhat impartial observer who did not judge. So while Capote might have used the press to sway public opinion and thus bring pressure on the verdict (no one can say for certain whether this would have been possible), the fact that his friend Harper was first to success with her own publication only added to Truman's self-pity. He was more upset about his own dragging career path than he was about the possibility of the defendants being executed.

Yet his writings did draw attention to the relationship between the law and the Christian ethos that appeared to be at the heart of Midwestern society. The law was cold and unforgiving -- just as cold and inhumane as the act of murder committed in the heart of that very society. One of the ministers at the scene throughout the trial, Reverend Post, reflects on the defendant Perry Smith that "any man who could paint this picture [of Jesus] can't be one hundred percent bad. All the same it's hard to know what to do. Capital punishment is no answer: it doesn't give the sinner time enough to come to God'" (Capote 306). More of this line of exposition might have triggered a movement to question the national policy on capital punishment and swayed the outcome of the trial. But Capote does not stick to it, offering the other side of the argument as well in his attempt to be an impartial observer: "Many a man can match sob stories with that little bastard. Me included. Maybe I drink too much, but I sure as hell never killed four people in cold blood" (Capote 306), says another man, who disagrees with the Reverend's perspective.