Thanks for the thought Grandma!

Yesterday afternoon I was talking to my Grandma about the book In Cold Blood and Breakfast At Tiffany's. I was trying to persuade her to read some of Capote's books but she refused. She told me she didn't like mystery stories. I explained that Breakfast at Tiffany's wasn't a mystery and it was a book she would like because of it's quick and witty writing, where as in In Cold Blood, it was more of a darker mysterious writing. She still refused. Upon asking why, she told me that she had read a book by Capote a long time ago and wasn't very fond of it. Said it was too dark for her. Of course I needed to back myself up as to win this argument. I explained to her that Capote was one of those writers that you could never judge by one book, because all his books are so different. One of his books is about murdering four people, with disgusting details that explains one murder in five paragraphs, while another one of his books is about a girl that thinks nothing can ever go wrong as long as you're at Tiffany's and you don't have to know what's happening in the world around you, while a third story is about Capote's real life of how he spent Christmas one year with his Aunt and how he was so happy. 

That's when I realized that I should write my paper about how Capote isn't a one genre kind of person, he likes to write his stories about anything and everything. I want to discuss the difference and similarities of his books, bust mostly the differences because Capote has so many differences between his books and stories.

In Cold Blood

I’m having trouble telling if the two robbers are gay. I’m pretty sure they are, but they never touch, or seem really into each other, except for how Dick always calls Perry, “baby” or “honey,” but those could just be terms of interment. They could be bi I guess. I mean both men were stuck in jail for a long time, and I hear that the men sometimes go gay being in jail, but Dick was also married twice, to women. Could it just be a new thing, where he’s gone gay for Perry? I think Perry was gay to begin with because he liked one of his cellmates, Willie Jay. Are they together as a couple? Or are they just on a job together and then when it’s over, they’ll just go their separate ways?

When you think about it, In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s have a lot in common. Both have to deal with criminals, and talk about a trial. Both the books start with background information that leads up how the characters get in trouble with the law. I’ve never actually read a book that tells you everything about the characters and then tells you what they did that was so interesting. Usually I’ve read or seen a movie in which you know what happens, and then people try and figure out how it happened. I wonder why Capote chose to write like that?

In Cold Blood

While readying In Cold Blood, I noticed that both the books have guitars in them. Both characters in Capote's books have guitars they like to play. I wonder if the guitars represent anything. Or if the characters were based on the same person, or something like that?

Summary

Breakfast At Tiffany's is from Nick's point of view of his friendship with his crazy, spaced out apartment neighbor, Holly Golightly. In the beginning, Holly only uses Nick as a way of getting into the building, since she never used her key (Page 14). She would ring his buzzer every night at around two in the morning. One day, Holly climbed the fire escape to Nicks room and started talking to him (Page 17). Holly told Nick about her every Thursday bus ride to the local jail and talking to a man named Sally Tomato and how he would give her the weather report for her to tell Sally's friend out of jail. Holly never knew what it meant. 

Nick went to party after party in Holly's apartment room, where there was no furniture, and everyone had a drink in their hand that never seemed to empty. Nick met all of Holly's friends, and her boyfriend, who ended up running away with Holly's friend. He also ended up meeting Holly's husband who she married at the age of 14 (Page 69). Lulamae, which was Holly's real name, had run away from her home and moved to the big city to start a new life. After Holly's ex and friend ran away together, a letter came for Holly saying that her brother had died. This drove Holly crazy, for she loved her brother, even though she never got to see him. Holly drover herself crazy for a couple of months, causing her friend's ex boyfriend to move in with her to keep her from hurting herself. A couple of months later, Holly became pregnant, or 'preggers' as she called it, with the man's child (Page 81). A couple weeks after, Holly was brought to jail, to go on trial about helping Sally Tomato with drug deals while visiting him (Page 89). Nick didn't know who to call to help, Holly had a lot of acquaintances, but not a whole lot of friends who would help bail her out of jail.

Will she ever get out?

Quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's (Page 16)

"I discovered, from observing the trash-basket outside her door, that her regular reading consisted of tabloids and travel folders and astrological charts; that she smoked an esoteric cigarette called Picayunes; survived on cottage cheese and melba toast; that her vari-colored hair was somewhat self-induced. The same source made it evident that she received V-letters by the bale. They were always torn into strips like bookmarks. I used occasionally to pluck myself a bookmark in passing. Remember and miss you and rain and please write and damn and goddamn were the words that recurred most often on these slips; those, and lonesome and love. 

"Also, she had a cat and she played the guitar. On days when the sun was strong, she would wash her hair, and together with the cat, a red tiger-striped tom, sit out on the fire escape thumbing a guitar while her hair dried. Whenever I heard the music, I would go stand quietly by my window. She played very well, and sometimes sang too. Sang in the hoarse, breaking tones of a boy's adolescent voice."

This is one of my favorite quotes because this guy has never met this girl whose things he's looking through. Though it feels sort of like he already knows her, through her trash. I love how the writer just gives the readers details in the book without metaphors, because even though it would make the book better, it would take away from that little bit of a dark side the book holds, because I feel that using metaphors can sometimes make a book feel more light-hearted where as Capote's style of writing seems more dark.

Truman Capote

            For my American Author paper, I would like to read books by Truman Capote because I don’t really know anything about him. I’ve only watched a third of the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s and wondered if would be better as a book. Little did I know that:

1. It was a book.
2. It was written by Truman Capote.

Books and movies have been made about him, and I never really questioned who he really was. When I saw that he was an American Writer, it started my curiosity. I know that I should know what Capote was famous for, but unfortunately it took me this long to find out.

            Truman Capote was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and had been writing since he was eleven. Later on, he moved to Monroeville, Alabama. While living in the south, he was neighbor to Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird. The two became best friends. In fact, Capote based one of his characters, Idabel in Other Voices, Other Rooms on Harper. In return, one of the characters in Lee’s book, Dill, was characterized after Capote. Dill was perceived as bold, creative, and had an unpleasant family history. This of course, was what was thought of when you would hear of Capote.

I’ve only really looked at two books by Capote. The first book is, of course, Breakfast At Tiffany’s because, as I said before, I never have seen the whole movie but thought to myself, I wonder if I could stand this movie more if it was a book. So here’s my chance to take that question and find out the answer. The other book I’m looking at to read is In Cold Blood. Anyone who knows me knows that a story about blood, murder and finding the real story behind the case is not a book I would read. Though for some reason, and I have no idea why, I’m really interested in reading In Cold Blood. Both books interest me, and because both books are around 300 pages long, I don’t need a third book because I have hit the limit of 600 pages. I also plan on readying the Biography of Truman Capote, and at one point or another, I plan to watch the movie, Capote, because it always interested me but I never saw it because I don’t like those kinds of movies.

            All I really know about Capote is that he used people of the higher class to get info and the scoop on everything and everyone, and he wrote books. So I feel that finding a thesis will be easy for me because I could look at so much information and find lots of thesis’s to write about.

            I can’t wait to start reading the books. They look really interesting. I’m more interested in reading Breakfast at Tiffany’s because it’s more of a light hearted book, but coming from Capote, it didn’t really seem to me, like his kind of writing. In Cold Blood, on the other hand, was more of what I thought Capote would be writing about a lot. I’m excited to be reading that book too, though I’m not sure if I can read though it without gagging, since I really don’t like blood.