Reading Standard

Standard 


2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

This week I read Part 2 of the novel "In Cold Blood." The novel is about the murder of an entire family that was well known and respected in their community. The story is told in third person omniscient and from two different perspectives, the clutter family, before they were killed and the two criminals, their characterization. The beginning of the story is a mere introduction of the characters and how the situation evolves from the crime. As the store continues it builds on to the suspense of what had happened and continues with the communities reaction.

Part one talks about the clutter family, it describes each character in detail it let's the reader know how each character was to make the story seem less predictable so that the reader questions why was that specific family murdered and not anyone else in the town. The clutters were popular and we're not the  wealthiest so why murder them if it was not for robbery and since they were well liked they had no enemies, which leaves the reason of their murder unsolved and the whole town scared to death.

On the other side, the murderers were also being described in detail. Their names are Dick and Perry, both of which are conveyed as tough criminals, Dick more than Perry. As the story progresses we learn that Perry is not as tough as he makes Dick believe and we know that if it were not for Dick, Perry would not have committed the crime by himself. He is later revealed as a sensitive soul that is only the way he is and is only in the situation that he is because he got it tough in his childhood. Whereas Dick is portrayed as insensitive and stubborn.

Throughout part two, after the murder, Perry continuously worries about getting caught and says that there must be something wrong with the both of them for killing an entire family without getting caught. Here Perry shows that he isn't a true murderer and is only covering up so that Dick won't think of him as less manly and tough or incapable of such crimes. Perry is more capable of other things than being a murderer he unlike Dick is smart and has much talent.

 Dick on the other hand is a real criminal and murderer he does not regret anything and is confident about not getting caught. The story has not revealed the reasons for how he acts like it did for Perry but he is described to have cold blood and not have a heart towards anything or anyone. In a scene, while they were driving to another state, Dick runs over a dog without consideration.