Consider the following points as you prepare for the Socratic Seminar. Bring in notes with specific points, page numbers, examples, etc. that you wish to discuss.
1. What image of America and/or the American dream does Capote portray in ICB?
2. Is Capote's style of writing objective or subjective? Defend/explain.
3. How does Capote build suspense despite the fact that readers know the ultimate outcome from the beginning of In Cold Blood?
4. In what ways is In Cold Blood like a fiction novel? How does Capote report the facts and allow different voices to speak without using a journalistic style?
5. Why do you think Capote split the narrative into four sections? Why do you think he did not describe how the murders happened until Dick and Perry were caught and gave their confessions?
6. How did Capote humanize the killers? Were you surprised by how likable they could seem despite the brutality of their crime and their lack of remorse until the end?
7. Capote seems to paint Perry in a more sympathetic light than Dick. He seems sensitive and even kind at points; however, by the end you find out that Perry committed all four murders. Did that surprise you? Did you sympathize with Dick more than Perry at any point? Or did you not buy any of the kind characterizations? Did your opinion change when you found out Perry was the true killer?
8. Do you think Dick and Perry were sane? Did the psychiatric analysis of them and descriptions of other cold blooded killers surprise you? Scare you? Make you think differently about violent crime or the death penalty?
9. Did reading this book change or influence your opinion on the death penalty or the criminal justice system in any way?
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